Jordan behind attempted sabotage of China-hosted Palestinian talks: Report
The Cradle, July 10, 2024 —
Jordanian security officers are also helping Israeli intelligence stifle resistance in the West Bank, Al-Akhbar newspaper reveals.
A new report by Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar has disclosed the deep level of collaboration between Jordan and Israel since 7 October.
This collaboration includes attempts at sabotaging intra-Palestinian talks hosted by China, joint interrogations of Palestinian prisoners in the occupied West Bank, and further confirmation of a land bridge running from the Jordanian–Saudi border to the occupied Palestinian territories.
“Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas responded to an official Jordanian request that he and the Fatah movement not participate in the Palestinian dialogue [that was meant to be held] in China at the end of June,” a source close to the Palestinian presidency told Al-Akhbar on 9 July.
According to the source, the Jordanian request was made last month. Amman warned the Palestinian Authority (PA) that taking part in the meeting in China would legitimize Hamas, strengthen China’s role in the conflict while stifling the role of the PA, and present Ramallah as “cooperating” with the resistance movement.
China, Hamas, and the PA’s Fatah party confirmed on 26 April that intra-Palestinian talks would be held in the Chinese capital. Not long after, representatives from each of the rival Palestinian factions met in Beijing for dialogue.
A second meeting was scheduled for last month. On 24 June, Hamas said in a statement that the first meeting was meant to prepare for an upcoming round of talks in Beijing but that Abbas informed China of his “refusal to participate in the expanded meeting, without providing any logical justifications and without any national dialogues.”
Informed sources told Al Mayadeen on 5 July that China’s ambassador in Qatar informed Hamas that the PA president has accepted to resume Beijing talks.
The Al-Akhbar report also reveals that since Operation Al-Aqsa Flood and the start of the Gaza war on 7 October, Jordanian security services have been deployed in the occupied West Bank and assisted their Israeli and PA counterparts with suppressing Palestinian resistance and interrogating prisoners.
The report cites testimonies of Palestinian prisoners who were released from Israeli prisons. According to the testimonies, prisoners were directly interrogated by Jordanian officers. It also says that Tel Aviv offered prisoners deals such as pardons in exchange for cooperation with the Jordanians or in exchange for “helping to prevent the escalation of resistance activity in the West Bank.”
Jordanian security services also continue to work alongside Israeli intelligence and US forces on the Iraq-Syria border to prevent weapons from being smuggled to the Palestinian resistance in the West Bank.
Jordan is one of the main smuggling routes for West Bank-bound weapons.
The report also further confirms the existence of a land bridge through which goods are being delivered into Israel via Jordan – which aims to circumvent the effects of the maritime blockade imposed on Israeli shipping by the Yemeni army and the Ansarallah resistance movement.
“A state of popular rage has begun to spread across Jordan after information was revealed about the [Jordanian] regime circumventing the maritime embargo imposed by the Ansar Allah movement in Yemen on the Israeli occupation,” Al-Akhbar cites informed sources in Amman as saying.
News of the land bridge was initially reported in Hebrew and western media in early February. Freelance Jordanian–Palestinian journalist Hiba Abu Taha was sentenced to one year in prison by Jordanian authorities in mid-May, less than a month after releasing an extensive investigative report exposing Jordanian companies transporting exports to Israel via the land bridge.