Israel has yet to decide whether to send detained Jordanian MP back home — diplomat

Israel has yet to determine its next steps regarding the Jordanian parliamentarian arrested in April on suspicion of smuggling over 200 guns and gold into the West Bank, an Israeli diplomatic told The Times of Israel on Tuesday.

MP Imad al-Adwan, arrested last Saturday evening at the Allenby Bridge border crossing as he was heading into the West Bank by car, could be transferred to Jordanian custody, said the official, as long as he will face justice there.

Israel and Jordan do not have an extradition agreement.

The official stressed that Adwan could still face prosecution in Israel.

“We will do whatever is in Israel’s interest,” said the official.

The two countries remain in close contact over the issue, the official added.

According to Jordan’s Ammon news outlet, Adwan is being held in Ofer military prison, located north of Jerusalem in the West Bank.

Adwan’s lawyers told Ammon on Tuesday that an Israeli judge decided to extend a ban on Adwan meeting with his lawyer until Thursday.

Israel has tried to avoid placing responsibility for the alleged smuggling attempt directly on Amman.

“I don’t think that the episode is connected to Jordan in general, but to an irresponsible criminal act,” said Foreign Minister Eli Cohen last week in an interview with the Ynet news outlet.

“I don’t want to assign guilt to the entire government or the entire parliament,” Cohen added.

At the same time, Cohen stressed that, because it involved weapons, it was “a very serious incident, which will be examined, and we are studying it in depth.”

Video viewed by The Times of Israel showed around a dozen AR-15-style assault rifles and around 200 handguns spread in rows on a floor as Israeli officials cataloged them.

However, Israeli authorities refused to comment on whether they were the weapons seized from Adwan’s car. Police issued a gag order on the case, barring many details from being published by Israeli media.

Former Jordanian MP Tarek Khoury accused Israel of fabricating the gold angle, in order “to turn the heroic act into a smuggling issue.” Israel’s Channel 12 news, without citing a source, said no gold was found in Adwan’s vehicle.

Adwan’s cousin, Abdel Rahman al-Adwan, Jordan’s former chief of public security, is representing the family in its communications with Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi and Parliament Speaker Ahmed Safadi.

Asked by Ynet what Israel would demand in order to repatriate Adwan to Jordan, Cohen said that “first of all, the basic demand is of course to bring him to justice, and that he should pay the price for the serious act he carried out.”

“Of course, an incident like this cannot just pass on by,” he continued, ” and of course whoever carries out a severe criminal act must be brought to justice and pay the price.”

Israel’s top diplomat added that the Foreign Ministry and security officials are in touch with Amman, and no final decision will be made until Israel completes its investigation.

A surge of violence and terror attacks has wracked the West Bank in recent months, aided by a flood of illegal weapons, including many guns smuggled from Jordan.

The incident last weekend came amid already elevated tensions between Amman and Jerusalem even further.

According to the Kan public broadcaster, Foreign Minister Safadi refused to answer calls from his Israeli counterpart Cohen after news of the incident broke.

In April, an unnamed senior Israeli official told the Walla news site that Safadi’s recent conduct and statements had exacerbated the crisis in bilateral ties, adding that he “acted like a Jordanian [Itamar] Ben Gvir” — a reference to the far-right Israeli national security minister, whose conduct and policies have been widely viewed as contributing to growing friction with the US and other countries.

Footage shows the arms allegedly seized from a Jordanian parliament member at the Allenby Crossing pic.twitter.com/VZPY6IHhlM

— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) April 23, 2023

Emmanuel Fabian contributed to this report.