On June 12, Jordan's military court sentenced three Hamas operatives
convicted of conspiring to attack Israeli and Jordanians. The Hamas
operatives, sent to jail from between five and 15 years, were said to have
targeted Israeli businessmen and Jordanian intelligence officers.
One of the three defendants, Ayman Naji Al Daraghmeh, said he was
ordered to attack targets in Jordan by a Hamas leader in Syria. The leader
was not identified.
Officials said Jordan's King Abdullah has warned the administration that
a Palestinian state in the West Bank would fuel the Islamic opposition and
could lead to an attempt to overthrow the kingdom. They said Hamas has
already made significant inroads in Jordan in wake of its takeover of the
Gaza Strip in 2007.
Jordan has urged the United States to link any Palestinian entity in the
West Bank to Amman. They said Abdullah has proposed a merger of the West
Bank and the East Bank, an arrangement that lasted from 1949 to 1967.
"The only acceptable scenario for us is the merger of Jordan and all the
West Bank," another official said.
Some officials have raised the prospect that a Palestinian state in the
West Bank would result in a Jordanian backlash. They said such a backlash
would include a sealing of its western border and a downgrading of relations
with Israel.
On Wednesday, on the eve of a truce between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, at
least six Palestinian insurgents were killed in an Israeli air strike.
Palestinian officials reported that a senior commander of the Army of Islam,
Muataz Dormoush, was killed in the attack. Mumtaz Dormoush, leader of the
Army of Islam, is the half brother of Muataz Dormoush.
