Jordan is close to taking a critical decision, whether to consider Hamas a “terror organization” and cut all ties with it, top Jordanian officials told the Arab-language online news portal Elaph.
This comes after an announcement on Tuesday by government spokesman Na’sir Joudeh, revealing that Jordan, for the second time in under two weeks, discovered illegal weapons Hamas was hiding on its territory.
Members of the Hamas movement in Jordan were arrested several days ago in connection with the weapons found by Jordan’s security forces. The detainees, Joudeh said, are all connected with Hamas’ military chief in Syria.
Jordan has cancelled the planned visit of Mahmoud A-Zahhar, who’s in charge of external affairs in the Palestinian Hamas government, following its first announcement last week regarding the Hamas weapons.
And in what seems like an escalation of rhetoric, Jordan on Tuesday officially accused Syria of facilitating acts of violence on its own territories by the Hamas leadership stationed in Damascus.
“Security interrogations with the detained suspects have proven they received instructions to execute operations from leaders of Hamas and specifically one of the military officials of Hamas currently based in Syria,” Joudeh told Reuters.