Israel releases 10 Jordanian prisoners
Jordan-Israel, Politics, 11/25/2003

A high ranking Israeli official said that Israel will release 10 Jordanian officials later this week in what he described as a good intention measure towards Jordan on the occasion of Eid al-Fiter (Ramadan Holiday).

The official said that the decision to release those Jordanians was taken during a meeting for the Israeli government on Sunday. Israel had intended the release of certain Jordanians before an expected operation to exchange prisoners with the Lebanese Hizbullah party.

The prisoners will be released today. The Israeli official explained that none of the prisoners had a role in killing Israelis. Four of them had indirect connection to the activities of certain persons described to be as extremists, and were jailed for having weapons or explosives. The others committed smaller crimes or jailed for entering Israel illegally.

Press reports had stressed that the Hizbullah party called for the release of Jordanians in the framework of the exchange operation, but Jordan wants Israel to release its prisoners separately, for fears that releasing them as part of the exchange operation will encourage a belief that Hizbullah is the reason for their release.

For his part, the Jordanian foreign minister Marwan Muasher described the decision of the Israeli government as a positive initiative, stressing that those prisoners constitute the first batch of detainees which Jordan hopes to release in the framework of negotiations it is making with Israel.

Muasher said that the release of ten prisoners is a positive initiative that came in response to the efforts of his King Abdullah and that of the Jordanian government in this regard. He indicated that he had received a telephone call from the Israeli foreign minister Shalom Silvan who notified of this decision by the Israeli cabinet, noting that that the prisoners whose names are not disclosed satisfied legal requirements which permits the Israeli government to release them.

He said that Israel will release 81 Jordanians from Israeli jails.

Previous Stories:
  Nasrullah: negotiations with Israel to be in secret   (11/18/2003)
  Organizing flights to al-Aqsa provokes criticism in Jordan   (11/18/2003)
  Israeli project to dig channel alternative to the Suez Canal: linking Mediterranean to Red Sea   (10/31/2003)
  Israel commends strategic importance of relations with Jordan   (10/24/2003)

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