Jordan files complaint with UN over Timna airport

Monarchy concerned operations of future Israeli airstrip will affect takeoffs and landings in nearby Aqaba

An illustrative of a plane on the tarmac of King Hussein airport serving the border city of Aqaba. (screen capture: YouTube)
An illustrative of a plane on the tarmac of King Hussein airport serving the border city of Aqaba. (screen capture: YouTube)

Jordan filed a complaint with the United Nations Saturday regarding the construction of an airport at Timna, near the southern Israeli city of Eilat.

Speaking with the Jordanian newspaper Al Riyadh, Jordanian Transport Minister Lina Shbeeb said the United Nation’s International Civil Aviation Organization has begun to investigate the complaint, according to Army Radio.

Jordanian officials have repeatedly raised issue with the Timna airport, which is under construction just 10 kilometers (six miles) from the Red Sea Jordanian resort town of Aqaba and King Hussein airport.

Officials have said the operations at Timna will affect takeoffs and landings at Aqaba’s airport.

The new Israeli airport — being built at a cost of more than $470 million — would be located northeast of the resort town of Eilat, in the southern Aravah region of the Negev desert.

AFP contributed to this report.

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