Israel's Gaza invasion has set "whole region on fire," says Jordan's foreign minister
Nov 17, 2023
Tel Aviv [Israel], November 17 : Israel's invasion of Gaza has destroyed decades of work to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and has set "the whole region on fire," Jordan's foreign minister told CNN on Thursday.
"Israel is not producing security for itself by the killing of innocent Palestinians," Jordan's Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said, adding, "It's putting the whole region on fire again, and it has destroyed the hard work that many had made over the decades to make sure that we come to a peaceful conclusion to this conflict."
Israel had "killed any embrace of peace in the region" and its war against Hamas had pushed regional relations back more than 30 years, Safadi also said, according to CNN.
The Jordanian government had been discussing with Israel about exchanging solar power for energy but these discussions have now stopped because people "don't see any value" in dealing with Israel as its ground offensive in Gaza continues, Safadi said.
He said he thought the evidence Israel had shared to back its claim that Hamas had a "command node" under the Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City was "just ridiculous" and an "insult to intelligence."
He was also opposed to Israel's claim that its military operations in Gaza were self-defence.
"Any other country in the world that would have done a fragment of what Israel is doing would have been under sanctions by now," Safadi said, adding, "This is not self-defence. This is raw, ugly, vengeance, and the world has a responsibility to stop it," CNN reported.
Meanwhile, the US expressed deep concern on Thursday that Jordanian medics were wounded in shelling near their field hospital in Gaza.
"Concerned that Jordanian medical staff were injured in an attack outside the Jordanian Field Hospital in Gaza. We urge the protection of civilians who are providing critical support to Palestinians and thank Jordan for its ongoing work to provide humanitarian assistance in Gaza," posted US State Department spokesperson, Mathew Miller, on X.
