AMMAN, Jordan (AP) – Jordan reprimanded Iran’s envoy Tuesday over a protest in front of the Jordanian embassy in Tehran against Arab participation in the U.S.-sponsored international peace summit.
Acting Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh summoned Iranian Ambassador Mohamed Irani to his office to voice Jordan’s ëcondemnation in the strongest termsû over Monday’s protest
in Tehran, the official Petra new agency reported.
It said Iranian protesters gathered outside the premisses of the Jordanian Embassy in Tehran, shouting slogans against the kingdom and other unnamed Arab countries taking part in the part in Tuesday’s peace summit in Annapolis, Maryland.
ëJordan categorically rejects such action, which could have been avoided and we expect the Iranian government to prevent such things from taking place in the future,û Judeh told Irani in the closed-door meeting, according to Petra.
ëSuch behavior is unjustified,û Judeh added. He asserted that Arab nations were meeting with Israel under U.S. auspices to relaunch Palestinian-Israeli peace negotiations. He said the revived talks will lead to achieving the ënoble causeû of ëestablishing an independent Palestinian state.
Petra said Judeh demanded Irani to ësubmit a clarification on what happened and outline steps that Iran will take to prevent similar incidents in the future.
Jordanian relations with Iran have frosty since the 1979 Islamic revolution that ousted Iran’s Shah Reza Pahlavi, a close friend of the late King Hussein of Jordan, the father of King Abdullah II.
Pro-American Jordan, which has diplomatic relations with Israel under a 1994 peace treaty, is an outspoken critic of Iran’s hard-line policies. Abdullah was the first Mideast leader to warn in 2004 of Iran’s growing influence in the region, labeling it as a ëShiite crescent,û which he said stretched from Tehran and engulfed Iraq, Syria and Lebanon.
