Dubai: A Jordanian minister has become the talk of the town after declining to continue a live TV interview on a local channel saying he was at a dinner.
The Kingdom’s Transport Minister Wajih Azaiza apologised for not being able to continue the phone interview with Al Mamlaka TV as he was at the dinner.
The minister, who was reassigned as minister of transport after the fourth ministerial reshuffle, told the anchor, “Please, I have a dinner”.
During the interview, the minister was speaking about the demands of taxi companies, but insisted on ending the interview because he was at a dinner and the attendees with him watching his call.
The minister said to the presenter, “I spoke with you in order to convey my point of view, not to enter into a discussion.”
He added, “I am accompanied by people on a dinner invitation, and they all listen to my call, and this is not okay.”
A video clip of the interview has gone viral on social media, lauding the anchor’s response to the minister at the end of the TV show saying: “We need a minister who wants to work, a minister in a field, a minister who wants to serve citizens. If [you cannot] tolerate a phone call interview ... Anyways, we apologise [for] disrupting your dinner.”
