Kingdom to handle Israel envoy issue ‘when things official’

AMMAN — Jordan will respond to any Israeli move to send an ambassador to Amman when it is official, an official source said on Wednesday.

Asked to comment on news reports Wednesday claiming that Israel plans to appoint a new ambassador to Jordan, the source said: "We do not comment on reports quoting [unnamed] diplomatic sources. When we receive anything official, we will deal with it”.

In a report Wednesday, Reuters quoted an anonymous Israeli diplomatic source as saying that Tel Aviv plans to appoint a new ambassador to Jordan in a bid to "calm Amman's anger over the current envoy's handling of a shooting by an embassy guard in July”.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the Israeli source told Reuters that Tel Aviv's current envoy to Amman, Einat Schlein, who, along with the guard, was repatriated a day after the shooting incident, would not return to Jordan.

“The Jordanians don’t want her back, and this has been a big obstacle in patching things up,” the source said. “We’re looking for a replacement.”
Emmanuel Nahshon, spokesman for Israel’s foreign ministry, was quoted as saying: “We are working on a solution that will bring the relations back on track.”

Jordan has recently sent a letter to Israel stating that it would not allow the return of the Israeli mission until it receives guarantees of a serious investigation into the case, stressing that Jordan wants proper legal action to be taken against the Israeli embassy guard first.A 16-year-old Jordanian, Mohammad Jawawdeh, was killed during the shooting in a residential building in Rabieh neighbourhood near the Israeli embassy late July. A Jordanian doctor, who owned the building, was also shot during the incident and died later that night. 

Jordan interrogated the Israeli embassy guard before allowing him to return to Tel Aviv after the incident, protected by his diplomatic immunity.