Airport standoff as Jordan bars exiled Hamas leader

Jordanian authorities prevented an exiled leader of the Palestinian militant organisation Hamas from entering the country yesterday, officials said. An aviation official told Reuters that Ibrahim Ghosheh had flown to Amman airport on a regular Qatari flight from Doha, but was denied entry and asked to leave again on the same aircraft.

But the pilot of the plane said he had strict instructions from Qatar not to fly Ghosheh back, the official said. The Jordanian authorities told the pilot that passengers would not be allowed to board the plane if he did not take Ghosheh back. The scheduled flight was delayed by more than four hours as the two sides argued.

Qatar's Al Jazira satellite television quoted the pilot, Hamad al-Badawi, as saying he had received no instructions from the Qatari government. He told Al Jazira that he refused to fly with a passenger forced to board the aircraft as that would violate international aviation laws and could endanger passengers.

The official Qatari News Agency quoted a Foreign Ministry official as saying Qatar regretted that it had not been consulted before Jordanian authorities grounded the flight. He said Qatar agreed to host the Hamas leaders, including Gosheh, "temporarily due to the situation in Jordan and according to an agreement with the Jordanian government to resolve the matter".

"It was stressed to the brothers in Jordan that the Hamas leaders were guests in Qatar and that there was nothing to prevent them from leaving its soil and returning whenever they wanted," the official added.

Jordan's Petra news agency quoted a government source as saying authorities were surprised and dismayed by Ghosheh's attempt to return. The source said Ghosheh had been told he could not enter because he was a member of a non-Jordanian political group.

In Qatar, Hamas politburo head Khaled Meshal told Reuters in Dubai by telephone that Jordan had no right to bar Ghosheh from his own country. "We should be able to travel to Jordan as any Jordanian national without any conditions or restraints," Meshal said. He said Hamas had informed the Jordanian government that it "respects their desire that we should not have any political activities in Jordan without an understanding".

Ghosheh and three other senior Hamas officials, all Jordanian citizens, were deported to Qatar in November 1999 after being held for three months on charges of belonging to an illegal group and threatening Jordan's security.

Jordan, which signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1994, cracked down on Hamas in August 1999, closing its offices in Amman and arresting the leaders and two dozen members. The members were later released.