Scattered Clouds
clouds

18 April 2024

Amman

Thursday

71.6 F

22°

Home / Jordan News

Jordan Prime Minister survives no confidence vote

19-03-2014 11:01 AM


Ammon News - AMMONNEWS - Jordan's prime minister escaped a no-confidence vote by parliament Tuesday that was motivated by his government's allegedly weak response to the killing of a Jordanian judge by Israeli soldiers.

The 150-member lower house renewed its confidence in Prime Minister Abdullah Nsur by an 81-29 vote, with 20 abstentions and 20 MPs absent.

Incensed by the shooting death of judge Raed Zeiter at a border crossing last week, MPs had demanded the government expel the Israeli ambassador and release Jordanian soldier Ahmad Dakamseh, who shot dead seven Israeli schoolgirls in the 1990s.

They have also demanded the government recall the Jordanian ambassador to Israel.

Jordan signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1994, becoming the only Arab country besides Egypt to have made peace with Israel.

Nsur told the MPs on Tuesday the government "does not see that expelling the Israeli envoy and calling the Jordanian ambassador serve the path of our martyr's case," state-run Petra news agency reported.

"If we go ahead with such moves, Jordan will face repercussions that would go beyond our sorrows... It will also affect Jordan's abilities concerning the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks," he said.

Nsur did not mention Dakamseh, who is serving a life sentence for the 1997 shooting.

MPs were not immediately available for comment as they were still meeting in parliament.

Israeli troops shot dead 38-year-old Zeiter, a Palestinian-Jordanian, at a border crossing between the occupied West Bank and Jordan on March 10, saying he had attacked them and tried to take one of their weapons.

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights disputed the army's account, saying one of the soldiers pushed Zeiter after he had disembarked from a bus with other passengers so that Israeli soldiers could search it.

Nsur has held Israel "completely responsible" for Zeiter's death and demanded an apology for the "hideous" killing.

On Monday, the royal palace said in a statement that Israeli President Shimon Peres had apologised to King Abdullah II for the killing, and that the king had received a "similar" call from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Peres issued a statement saying he had called Abdullah to express "deep regret" for the shooting, but the statement did not contain a full apology.

*Middle East




No comments

Notice
All comments are reviewed and posted only if approved.
Ammon News reserves the right to delete any comment at any time, and for any reason, and will not publish any comment containing offense or deviating from the subject at hand, or to include the names of any personalities or to stir up sectarian, sectarian or racial strife, hoping to adhere to a high level of the comments as they express The extent of the progress and culture of Ammon News' visitors, noting that the comments are expressed only by the owners.
name : *
email
show email
comment : *
Verification code : Refresh
write code :