Report: Jordan Won’t Host Hamas Office After Reconciliation Deal

TEL AVIV — Jordanian authorities have decided not to open an official Hamas embassy or consulate in the kingdom, according to a report in the Jordanian Al Ghad newspaper.

Al Ghad was reportedly told by a Jordanian official that in the wake of the impending reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah, the Islamic terrorist organization would not be granted official representation in Jordan.

“No Hamas representation will be reopened in the kingdom,” said the source. “Hamas is a Palestinian movement and party. Its place and its activities are in Palestine and the Palestinian territories. Besides, the law of parties in Jordan forbids the opening of branches of non-Jordanian parties in Jordanian territory.”

In light of the reconciliation deal between Fatah and Hamas, reports indicated that Hamas might return to Jordan with official representation. The Jordanian government closed Hamas’ so-called embassy there in 1999 and expelled the movement’s representative from the kingdom.

Until the closure of Hamas’ representation in Jordan in 1999, the kingdom served as the main headquarters for Hamas’ leadership and the movement’s officials lived there. This included Hamas’ former leader and politburo chief until a few months ago, Khaled Meshal.

A team of Mossad agents tried to assassinate Meshal on Jordanian territory in 1997, an attempt that failed after Jordan’s king conditioned the release of Mossad agents captured by Meshal’s bodyguards on Israel giving Meshal the antidote to the poison used during the failed attempt on his life.

As part of Israel’s gesture of apology to Jordan’s late King Hussein, Hamas’ so-called spiritual leader, arch terrorist ideologue Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, was released from Israeli prison, but was assassinated in 2004 by the Israeli Air Force during the second intifada.

Meanwhile, the first Palestinian Authority delegation of ministers has arrived in the Gaza Strip led by deputy prime minister Ziad Abou Amer. In a conversation with the Palestinian media, Abou Amer announced that the ministers decided to begin their work in Gaza immediately from their offices there.