ALBAWABA - Israel has detained a Jordanian lawmaker for allegedly attempting to smuggle more than 200 guns and gold into the West Bank, according to news reports.
Footage shows the arms allegedly seized from a Jordanian parliament member at the Allenby Crossing pic.twitter.com/VZPY6IHhlM
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) April 23, 2023
The smuggling is likely to worsen already tense relations between the two Mideast neighbors over the continued storming of Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque, one of Islam's holiest shrines, by Jewish settlers under protection by the Israeli Defense Forces. Al-Aqsa is part of a compound that also houses the Dome of the Rock.
Israel has also been blocking Christian and Muslim worshippers from accessing their holy shrines in Jerusalem's walled Old City.
Jordan sees the Israeli moves as attempts to change the status quo in Jerusalem, which Israel occupied in the 1967 Mideast War, and undermine the sanctity of the city's Christian and Muslim holy shrines, which are under the kingdom's custodianship.
Jordan says MP held by Israel over alleged arms, gold smuggling https://t.co/saBUhGJvPb
— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) April 24, 2023
Jordan’s Ammon news confirmed the arrest, saying legislator Imad Edwan was detained Saturday evening at the Allenby Bridge border crossing as he was traveling into the neighboring West Bank by car.
Israel’s foreign ministry declined comment, according to the Times of Israel.
According to the Jordanian Foreign Ministry, it is handling the arrest via diplomatic channels with the appropriate Israeli authoritieshttps://t.co/9xFYUc552V
— Haaretz.com (@haaretzcom) April 23, 2023
