Home – Foreign – Jordan tries to mediate between Iran and Israel, but to no avail

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Jordan, which has a large Palestinian population and is a Western ally, has been forced to walk a balancing act as it faces domestic pressure to sever ties with and stop protecting Tel Aviv after it shot down an Iranian rocket aimed at Israel earlier this year. protector.

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The visit was doomed to fail as Iran insisted on Sunday there was no room for compromise and would respond firmly to the attack.

After the meeting, Safadi insisted he had no message to or from Israel, adding that he would also meet with Iranian President Massoud Peshek. However, he feared that if Jordan was seen as helping to protect Israel from Iran, Jordan itself would be attacked by Iran.

The last time was in April, when Iran targeted Israel attack Jordan shot down some Iranian missiles that flew over its airspace, emphasizing that it would not become a battleground for other conflicts, and allowed the French navy to install radar.

But the kingdom is also facing massive protests in support of the Gaza Strip and anger over the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Her mouthHe condemned it as a “criminal act and a grave violation of international law.” Israel has refused to comment officially on Haniyeh’s killing, but his role has been widely acknowledged.

Iran insists it must retaliate

Iran insisted the attack crossed too many red lines and called for a meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation to pressure Gulf Arab states, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, to accept sanctions on Israel.

Safadi’s visit to Iran, the first by a Jordanian foreign minister in two decades, reflects the failure of telephone talks between the two sides to find a diplomatic solution. He has been a vocal critic of Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians in recent months.

“The Israeli government’s actions reflect its racism, extremism and rejection of the right of Palestinians to live like any other people on Earth,” Safadi said. However, Jordan is highly dependent on the United States for its security.

Former diplomats and politicians in Tehran have also engaged in a fierce debate on how to respond without playing into Netanyahu’s hands. The final decision rests with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) council.

Most commentators in Tehran believe Netanyahu’s attack was aimed at undermining the government led by Masoud Peshek and his pursuit of improved relations with the West. Israel vowed to kill all Hamas leaders after the October 7 attack, and its intelligence services have previously carried out covert operations inside Iran.

Iran’s interest was also fueled by US media reports that Joe Biden rebuked Netanyahu in a phone call on Thursday, saying he had misled Netanyahu about a plan to assassinate Haniyeh, the chief Hamas ceasefire negotiator, and had set increasingly unacceptable preconditions for ceasefire talks. According to reports widely accepted in Israeli media, Netanyahu’s intelligence and defense ministers told him they could not negotiate a ceasefire within the parameters he had set.

But Tehran doubts Biden’s frustration with Israel’s leadership will be effective in pressuring Netanyahu to give his negotiators a new, more flexible mandate. Weekend talks failed to make progress, and Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Qalibaf called on Iran to respond forcefully.

Peshek is still busy forming a government, but he has named Javad Zarif, a strong proponent of engagement with the West and who helped negotiate the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, as a strategic vice president, which could give him more influence than the foreign minister.

The conflict within Iran over the correct military response is also colored by a fierce debate over whether the Israeli spy agency Mossad has infiltrated Iran’s intelligence services. According to the official explanation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Haniyeh was killed by a “short-range projectile” fired from outside his residence in northern Tehran. However, in other reports, one can read about an explosive device that was placed months ago. Hanij’s bedroom was not blown up until he arrived in Tehran for Peshekscan’s inauguration.

Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari told reporters earlier that there were “no other Israeli air strikes … in the entire Middle East” that night. Fuad SoukHezbollah leader killed in Lebanon.