A Jordanian government official on Saturday denied news reports that the foreign ministry had lodged a protest against Iranian Ambassador in Amman, Nasrattulah Tajik, following his participation in a rally organized by the Muslim Brotherhood movement on Friday to support the Palestinian Intifada.
“If he was invited to such a rally, there is nothing that prevents him from attending the event, provided that the rally was licensed by the concerned authorities,” the official told the Jordan Times newspaper.
The official was responding to a news report carried by the London-based Middle East Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) claiming that Tajik was summoned to the ministry following the rally and was handed a “strong [letter of] protest.”
Tajik did not give a speech during the two-hour rally, which was organized to show support for the one-year-old Palestinian Intifada in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, but was among the 2,000 participants.
An official at the Iranian embassy in Amman also refuted the MBC report and said the mission received “no message nor any protest from the Foreign Ministry.”
But one senior government official said that Tajik had committed a “diplomatic error,” according to the paper.
“Mr. Tajik is an ambassador to the Hashemite Court and not an envoy of the opposition parties,” the official, who asked not to be named, told the Jordan Times.
“I believe that he should not have attended such a rally because his mission is to enhance Iran's ties with Jordan and not with the Jordanian opposition,” he added.
Jordan's ties with Iran, which were severed in the early 1980's and resumed in 1991, have greatly improved in the past three years.
A visit to Iran by King Abdullah slated for this summer was postponed for unspecified reasons – Albawaba.com
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