Israel risking ties with Jordan following MP's arrest, military expert says
Military expert on incident with Jordanian MP: "This is an unusual incident by any standard, also in terms of its diplomatic political sensitivity."
By 103FM VIA MAARIV ONLINE Hussein Bridge at the border crossing between Jordan and Israel(photo credit: REUTERS)
The arrest of Jordanian member of parliament Imad al Adwan at an Israeli border crossing on Sunday is an "unusual incident" which has created a sensitive diplomatic situation, Maariv's military commentator, Tal Lev Ram, said in a Monday interview with 103FM.
Speaking on Anat Davidov and Gideon Oko's radio program, Lev Ram discussed al Adwan, who was arrested at the border crossing after allegedly trying to smuggle weapons into the Palestinian Authority.
"This is an unusual incident by any standard, also in terms of its diplomatic political sensitivity, but first of all because of the scope of the smuggling," Lev Ram explained. "It is believed that he did it for financial gain, but he is also not a lover of Israel.
"Between being pro-Palestinian and going through this kind of action, the [amount of weapons smuggled] is really crazy. The magnitude was almost 200 weapons. He was arrested with his vehicle."
Joint police-IDF operation foils smuggling of over 30 weapons (credit: IDF SPOKESMAN’S UNIT)Red flags raised by weapons en masse
"I don't know how he thought he would be able to pass, I don't see how you can pass something like that in three bags," he added, "There is no such thing as getting so many weapons and selling them. You have to understand that the border with Jordan lacks a fence and the security system came very late in regard to actions to stop this thing.
"A large part of the weapons that have arrived in recent years [here] came from this border," Lev Ram explained."There is a diplomatic complication here," he clarified, "we'll see how Israel deals with it. I assume that in the end, they will find a way, a compromise or an agreement. As much as there are arguments and condemnations between Israel and Jordan, under the surface there is still cooperation. Apparently from what I hear he will not stay here. We want to exhaust the investigation and find out who the address here is."
Military expert: Monday's Syria airstrike is routine action
He also commented on a reported Israeli strike on a site belonging to the Hezbollah terrorist movement near Quneitra in southwest Syria early Monday morning.
"This is about a tank firing at a position near the border," Lev Ram said at the beginning of his remarks, "usually these things are accompanied by messages that the IDF sends, and what the IDF sees are elements working for Hezbollah who take advantage of the positions of the Syrian army. They gather intelligence and prepare infrastructure for terrorism. This is relatively routine action along the border in recent years in Syria."
