Jordan refuses to link the attack to receiving Saddam's two daughters
Iraq-Jordan, Politics, 8/8/2003

Jordan has officially rejected linking the attack against its embassy in Iraq to the Kingdom's receiving of the two daughters of the toppled Iraqi President.

The Jordanian minister of state for foreign affairs Shaher Bayck said that there is so far no evidence proving a link between giving asylum to Raghad and Rana Saddam Hussein and the attack which resulted in killing 11 persons and wounding other 57.

Bayck stressed that looting the embassy following the explosion is an evidence that the action was prefabricated. Scores of Iraqis looted the embassy and dismantled the Jordanian flag and burnt pictures of the Jordanian King Abdullah II and those of his late father Hussein. The masses which gathered in front of the embassy chanted slogans against Jordan and the Jordanians saying "we want to kill them."

A Jordanian official asked to be anonymous has not ruled out a link between yesterday's attack and the strong criticism addressed to Jordan by the congress "al-Mu'tamar" paper which is issued by member of the Iraqi National Congress party led by members of the Iraqi transitional governing council, Ahmed Chalabi.

However, this party vowed to arrest the executors of the attack and to bring them before justice.

The media official at the Iraqi National Congress, Mudar Shawkat, described the incident as a criminal act.

In 1989 Jordan sentenced Chalabi in absentia to 22 year imprisonment over looting charges following the bankruptcy of Petra Bank.

However, Jordan which is considered one of the US closes associates in the Middle East and had permitted the deployment of 6,000 American troops on its lands. A matter which raised the criticism of the collapsing Iraqi regime.

Previous Stories:
  Arab al-Youm: Jordan ready to dispatch forces at the request of the Governing Council   (8/6/2003)
  Washington green-lighted Jordan to receive Saddam's two daughters   (8/2/2003)
  Saddam's two daughters under Jordanian protection   (8/1/2003)
  Chalabi threatens the Jordanian King of Iraqi intelligence documents   (5/6/2003)

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