Israel and Jordan ‘in talks’ over contentious Timna airport

Talks come despite Amman’s UN complaint over new airport near Eilat, which it says will impact on Jordan’s air traffic

By ToI Staff 15 August 2015, 9:47 am

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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, right, and Jordan's King Abdullah II, during the former's surprise visit to Amman on January 16, 2014. (AP/Yousef Allan/Jordanian Royal Palace/File)

Jordan’s Transportation Minister Lina Shbeeb says that her country is in talks with Israel over the latter’s construction of a new airport at Timna, close to the resort town of Eilat, Israel Radio reported Saturday.

According to the report, Shbeeb said the negotiations are being held even as Jordan has filed a complaint with the United Nations over the construction of the new airport.

Jordanian officials have repeatedly raised issue of the airport, which is under construction just 10 kilometers (six miles) from the Red Sea Jordanian resort town of Aqaba and King Hussein Airport. They say the operations at Timna will affect takeoffs and landings at the Aqaba airport.
The new Israeli airport — being built at a cost of more than $470 million — will be situated northeast of Eilat, in the southern Arava region of the Negev desert.

Shbeeb said last month that the UN’s International Civil Aviation Organization has begun to investigate the complaint, Army Radio reported.

Israel’s Haaretz daily said that the UN complaint was filed after Israeli officials ignored the concerns raised by the Jordanians, and continued with construction on the project.

“We are pushing for an expedited response to our complaint because we are concerned for our flights, in order to prevent any disruptions to flight schedule and to protect Jordanian air space,” Shbeeb said last month, according to Haaretz.

Israel and Jordan have had diplomatic ties since 1994.