Jordan summoned Australias charge daffaires John Feakes after Canberra said it would no longer refer to Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria as occupied, the foreign ministry in Amman said on Monday. The ministry summoned the Australian charge daffaires and informed him that the kingdom is concerned about the Australian governments decision to stop referring to east Jerusalem as occupied, ministry spokeswoman Sabah Rafei said in a statement. The Australian governments decision violates international law and resolutions that consider east Jerusalem as an integral part of all Palestinian territories occupied in 1967, Amman claimed. Last week, Australian attorney general George Brandis sparked fury from the Palestinian Authority (PA) by saying Canberra would not use such judgmental language to describe an area which was the subject of negotiations. Israel, which has a 1994 peace treaty with Jordan, hailed the remarks as a refreshing acknowledgement of international law - which has never declared Israels presence over 1949 Armistice lines as illegal - but the PA leadership denounced them as disgraceful and shocking, making a formal diplomatic protest and summoning Australias diplomatic representative. Jordans summons surfaces less than two days after chief negotiator Saeb Erekat threatened to ask Arab and Muslim-majority countries to re-evaluate relations with Australia.
Posted on: Mon, 09 Jun 2014 20:08:40 +0000
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