AMMAN: Jordan strongly denied Monday reported comments by President Hosni Mubarak suggesting that Cairo was mediating a crisis between Amman and Damascus. There is no Egyptian mediation bid between Jordan and Syria, government spokesman Nasser Jawdeh told a weekly news conference. There is no crisis between Jordan and Syria. Relations between our two countries are on track and proof of this is that the higher Jordanian-Syrian committee is meeting at the end of the month in Damascus, Jawdeh added. The Akhbar Al-Youm last week quoted Mubarak as saying he was working on sorting out differences between Syria and Jordan. Mubarak met Jordan s King Abdullah II at the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh Sunday and is due to see Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad on Tuesday. In April, Jordan announced the arrest of 20 alleged members of Palestinian Islamic militant group Hamas suspected of plotted attacks in the kingdom and the seizure of weapons. Some of the suspects were said to have come from Syria, where they took orders from an alleged Hamas leader based in the neighboring country. In May, the cell s alleged ringleader Ayman Naji Daraghmeh, 34, was paraded on state television, speaking of his links to Hamas and his frequent trips to Syria. Jordan did not explicitly accuse Syria of any link to the plot, while Hamas denied any involvement. AFP
Jordan denies rift with Syria for Egypt to settle
