Khaleej Times

Jordan seeks to question Israel guard over embassy shooting

- AFP

amman — Jordan said on Monday it was looking to question an Israeli security guard who killed two Jordanians at the Amman embassy compound, as Israel insisted he had diplomatic immunity.

A Jordanian government source, who declined to be named, said Israel was “still examining the request” to quiz the guard involved in Sunday’s incident, which according to Israeli officials saw a Jordanian attack the guard with a screwdrive­r.

The security guard shot dead the Jordanian attacker, while a second Jordanian there at the time was also killed — apparently by accident. A Jordanian security source named the first dead man as 17-year-old Mohammed Jawawdeh and the second as Bashar Hamarneh, a doctor who was in the residentia­l quarter of the embassy at the time of the incident.He said the Israeli is the deputy director of security at the embassy.

Israel’s foreign ministry said Jawawdeh, who had gone to the compound to install furniture, stabbed the security guard in the back with a screwdrive­r.

It said as a foreign diplomat the guard was immune from investigat­ion under the Vienna Convention but the Jordanian government source said security forces were seeking Israeli permission to question him. “Israel is still examining the request,” the source said. “There is no need for a diplomatic escalation.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said they would seek to find an agreement, vowing to bring the guard home as soon as possible.

“We are holding contacts with Jordanian security and government officials in order to bring the incident to a close ASAP,” he said in a statement. “I assured the security officer that we will see to bringing him back to Israel, we have experience in this.”

Jawawdeh’s father Zakariya said he wanted “the truth” urging authoritie­s to view CCTV footage from security cameras at the embassy. “My son has no interest in politics. He does not follow any extremist ideology,” he said.

The government source said an initial investigat­ion indicated that Jawawdeh and the security guard “fell out over some dispute which led to a stabbing and a shooting”.

Israel and Jordan are bound by a 1994 peace treaty.

But tensions have been high in recent days after Israel put in place security measures at the highly sensitive Al Haram Al Sharif mosque compound in east Jerusalem. —

 ?? — AFP ?? Zakaria Al Jawadah, right, the father of Mohammed Mohammed Al Jawawdeh, a 17-year-old Jordanian, who was killed on Sunday by an Israeli security guard, holds back his tears at a funeral tent in Amman on Monday.
— AFP Zakaria Al Jawadah, right, the father of Mohammed Mohammed Al Jawawdeh, a 17-year-old Jordanian, who was killed on Sunday by an Israeli security guard, holds back his tears at a funeral tent in Amman on Monday.

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