29-03-2024 12:50 AM Jerusalem Timing

Jordan and Syria Expel Ambassadors

Jordan and Syria Expel Ambassadors

Jordan said on Monday it was expelling the Syrian ambassador and giving him 24 hours to leave after comments accusing the kingdom of abetting the West against Damascus.

Jordan, Syria flagsJordan said on Monday it was expelling the Syrian ambassador and giving him 24 hours to leave after comments accusing the kingdom of abetting the West against Damascus.

A foreign ministry statement said Ambassador Bahjat Suleiman, a former general and intelligence chief, had violated diplomatic protocol by posting repeated comments on social media that criticized Jordan and its Gulf allies.

Suleiman has accused Jordan in his posts of hosting radicals sent to fight President Bashar al-Assad's forces and providing a haven for hundreds of Syrian army defectors training them with Saudi help to go back and join armed groups.

"Mr. Suleiman used the territory of the kingdom as a platform to level unfounded accusations in more than one statement and post...this was despite repeated warnings for a long while," the statement on state news agency Petra said.
Syria declared Jordan's charge d'affaires in Damascus persona non grata in response to what it said was an unjustified decision by the kingdom to expel its ambassador, Syrian state television said on Monday.
Western media reports repeatedly stated that Jordan is supporting Syrian armed groups operating in Syria against the national military and people, while is publicly calling for a political solution to a global war on Syria that has cost over 100,000 lives.
The Western-backed kingdom has harbored more than one million refugees from neighboring Syria's war.