Gov’t asks Israel to delay sending back diplomats

AMMAN — Jordan has told Israel over the weekend to “hold on” with regard to the return of the Israeli Ambassador Einat Schlein to Amman following a shooting near the embassy's compound that resulted in the death of two Jordanians, a top government official said Sunday.

The official said Jordan requested the postponement of the return of the Israeli diplomatic mission to Jordan and reiterated Jordan's rejection of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s conduct, as he gave a hero’s welcome to the Israeli embassy guard who killed two Jordanians upon his return to Tel Aviv.

Jordan has recently sent a letter to Israel stating that it would not allow the return of the Israeli mission until it receives guarantees of a serious investigation into the case, stressing that Jordan wants proper legal action to be taken against the Israeli embassy guard first.

At a press conference yesterday, Minister of State for Media Affairs  and Government Spokesperson Mohammad Momani said that Jordan has been informed that legal procedures have been started by the Israeli judiciary to reach a just settlement to the case.

A 16-year-old Jordanian, Mohammad Jawawdeh, was killed during the shooting in a residential building in Rabieh neighbourhood near the Israeli embassy late July. A Jordanian doctor, who owned the building, was also shot during the incident and died later that night. 

Public security investigators concluded that an argument over “delay in delivering furniture to the embassy staffer’s apartment” by the Jordanian victim developed into a physical attack on the embassy employee by Jawawdeh causing him injuries. 

The diplomat responded by gunfire that also hit the building’s owner, who died of his injuries later in the day.   

Jordan interrogated the Israeli embassy guard before allowing him to return to Tel Aviv after the incident, protected by his diplomatic immunity.

But a prosecutor who looked into the case afterwards indicted the suspect and gave the green light for any possible legal action under the relevant international laws.