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Ammon News - AMMONNEWS - Jordan authorities denied on Monday reports about the Sudanese president's request to visit Jordan for medical checkup.

Sabah El Rafei the spokesperson of Foreign Ministry told Ammon News over the phone that Bashir did not make any request through the Jordanian embassy in Khartoum to visit the kingdom.

Recently, Sudan Tribune, a non profit news website, reported that Bashir made the request through the Jordanian embassy in Khartoum which referred the matter to its foreign ministry. The latter informed Khartoum later that it is unable to receive Bashir.

Jordan is one of four Arab states along with Djibouti, Comoros Island and Tunisia which are members of the International Criminal Court (ICC) which issued two arrest warrants in 2009 & 2010 for Bashir on charges of war crimes and genocide allegedly committed in Darfur.

Despite singing off on Arab League declarations rejecting the warrants, Jordanian officials quietly stated they will honor their obligations under the ICC’s statute.

Jordan is also one of the very active states at the ICC and Prince Zeid Ra’ad Zeid Al-Hussein was the first President of the ICC Assembly of States Parties from 2002-2005.

The Sudanese president used to undergo regular medical examinations in Qatar and more recently in Saudi Arabia but an apparent strain in bilateral relations may have forced him to seek treatment elsewhere.

Last week, the head of external relations for Sudan’s ruling National Congress Party’s (NCP), al-Dirdeeri Mohamed Ahmed, admitted that his country’s ties with Saudi Arabia are at a low point in the wake of Riyadh’s decision to bar its banks from dealing with their Sudanese counterparts effective February 28th.

In August of last year, Saudi Arabia closed its airspace to a plane carrying Bashir en route to Iran, where he was scheduled to attend the inauguration ceremony of president-elect Hassan Rouhani, thus forcing him and his delegation to return home.