Envoy heads to Amman after embassy vacant for nine months
Nine months after a stabbing and shooting incident at Israel’s embassy compound in Amman sent ties with Jordan reeling, Amir Weissbrod flew to the capital city on Monday to become Israel’s new ambassador to the Hashemite Kingdom.
“Dear Amir, good luck and lots of success!!!” Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon posted on Twitter, announcing that Weissbrod had arrived in Amman to take up his new post.
Weissbrod was appointed in February, and his arrival in Amman comes as Israel and Jordan hope to shore up ties in the face of increasingly common regional concerns and threats, such as a permanent Iranian presence in Syria.
He is expected to present his credentials to Jordanian officials in the coming days.
Weissbrod succeeded Einat Schlein, whom the Jordanians demanded be replaced following the incident in July when an embassy security official, who was attacked by a man wielding a screwdriver, responded by shooting and killing the assailant and a bystander.
The guard, Schlein and the embassy staff were returned home shortly afterward, and the Jordanians were infuriated that the guard received a “hero’s welcome” from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu,
with Schlein in attendance.
Ties with Jordan chilled considerably since then, with the Jordanians demanding a trial and compensation.
In January, just before a visit to Jordan and Israel by US Vice President Mike Pence, an agreement was reached putting an end to the affair.
Netanyahu said earlier this year that Israel did not “apologize” for the incident, but rather expressed regret. The Jordanian media reported that Israel paid $5 million in reparations for the death of the two men in the embassy compound as well as for a Jordanian judge killed in an incident at the Allenby Bridge in 2014. •