By Eyad Khalifah
Albawaba.com - Amman
The head of the Hamas Islamic resistance movement’s politburo says that the Jordanian government’s hard line on the exile of one of the group's leaders, Ibrahim Ghoshe, has kept the issue frozen.
Khalid Mishaal told Albawaba.com that the government’s conditions were “impractical” and “unacceptable to any human being.”
Ghoshe was denied entry into the kingdom on June 14; authorities have insisted that the Qatari Airways plane on which he arrived take him back to his exile in Doha.
The issue triggered a crisis between the two countries, after Jordan refused to allow members of the crew to leave the country on a regular flight. Their plane is still grounded at Amman’s Queem Alia Airport, while the Hamas leader is still being held by authorities.
Mishaal said Ghosheh was “besieged, and so "we consider him under arrest, as the Jordanian authorities have prevented his lawyer, family, friends and even doctors who want to check his health from visiting him.”
Mishaal said such acts were completely unjustifiable.
Albawaba.com learned that Ghoshe was moved from the transit hall at the airport to Alia Gateway Hotel under strict police security.
The Jordanian government has repeatedly said that Ghoshe, a Jordanian citizen, cannot re-enter the country without renouncing his Hamas membership.
Mishaal said that the Jordanian government had cut short all mediation efforts, including those of Yemen, and added that no contacts had been made with it since four Hamas leaders, including Ghoshe, were exiled to Doha in 1999.
“The only contact was my meeting with Jordanian Prime Minister Ali Abu Ragheb in Doha, in which I felt no change in the Jordanian government’s attitude,” said Mishaal. “Abu Ragheb’s government has inherited this crises, with all its impractical conditions, from the [Abdul Rauf] Rawabdeh administration,” added Mishaal.
The politburo head said that Hamas’ leader, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, had called upon King Abdullah and all other “wise people” to intervene and solve the problem.
The Hamas leader said he hoped to receive a positive response from the Jordanian government, and denied knowing of any visit by the Jordanian king to the Qatari capital.
“We hope the first step will be the ending of this crisis, which has spoiled the reputation of Jordan. It is time to stop such actions, which bar a Jordanian from returning home and seeing his children, while he is only a few meters away from them,” said Mishaal.
Regarding intermediaries for ending the crisis, Mishaal said the Yemeni and Libyan mediation efforts had been fruitless “due to the obstinacy of the Jordanian government.”
Mishaal said he knew of no Syrian attempts at mediation, adding, “we welcome any well-intentioned mediation, and we are keen to advocate them until they succeed, so that the crisis will not take any negative turns.”
“We want everybody to devote his efforts to fighting against the threats which Sharon poses to us,” he added.
Earlier, Albawaba.com sources reported about Syrian mediation, which started with a telephone conversation between the foreign ministers of the two countries. The sources expected that conversation to develop into negotiations at the highest levels in both countries.
Top-ranking Hamas officials stress that the matter does not need any mediation, and that the crisis can simply be solved by applying the law and Constitution to case of Ghoshe as a Jordanian citizen.
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
