Asmaa Khuder, spokeswoman for the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, said this week that Jordan holds "the same position [as that] of the Palestinian leadership" regarding the issue of Arab refugees of the 1948 Israeli War of Independence.
In a press conference Monday, Khuder said that there is coordination between Jordan and the PLO leadership regarding the issue of "refugees".
She explained that the position of PLO leader Yasser Arafat, as expressed to the Israeli daily Haaretz, is not "different in substance" from the Jordanian or accepted Arab position. (Arafat had commented in the newspaper interview that not all of the "refugees", whom he claimed numbered four million, will want to "return" to Israel.)
"The question of the Palestinian refugees and the right of the refugees to return is a right that we officially or the Palestinian leadership can not give up," the Jordanian spokeswoman said, "because it is an individual right for the Palestinian refugees. A right supported by international resolutions."
All may not be rosy in the relations between the PLO and the Kingdom from which the organization was brutally expelled some 33 years ago.
On Saturday, the same spokeswoman, Asmaa Khuder, denied reports that an official Jordanian delegation to the Palestinian Authority was forced to leave the city of Jenin under threats of violence by PLO leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction.
However, a representative of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, a branch of Fatah supported by the Palestinian Authority, told reporters that his gang did indeed force a Jordanian security delegation to leave Jenin.
According to Arabicnews.com, one PA representative in Amman further confirmed the incident, but lessened its impact by saying those threatened by Fatah were only members of a "media delegation for the Jordanian army." Jordanian spokeswoman Khuder herself confirmed that the Jordanian delegation in the PA is a delegation representing the Moral Guidance Directorate in the Jordanian armed forces, as well as representatives of Jordanian media. The group is visiting two Jordanian military hospitals in Jenin and Ramallah, Arabicnews reported.
In a press conference Monday, Khuder said that there is coordination between Jordan and the PLO leadership regarding the issue of "refugees".
She explained that the position of PLO leader Yasser Arafat, as expressed to the Israeli daily Haaretz, is not "different in substance" from the Jordanian or accepted Arab position. (Arafat had commented in the newspaper interview that not all of the "refugees", whom he claimed numbered four million, will want to "return" to Israel.)
"The question of the Palestinian refugees and the right of the refugees to return is a right that we officially or the Palestinian leadership can not give up," the Jordanian spokeswoman said, "because it is an individual right for the Palestinian refugees. A right supported by international resolutions."
All may not be rosy in the relations between the PLO and the Kingdom from which the organization was brutally expelled some 33 years ago.
On Saturday, the same spokeswoman, Asmaa Khuder, denied reports that an official Jordanian delegation to the Palestinian Authority was forced to leave the city of Jenin under threats of violence by PLO leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction.
However, a representative of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, a branch of Fatah supported by the Palestinian Authority, told reporters that his gang did indeed force a Jordanian security delegation to leave Jenin.
According to Arabicnews.com, one PA representative in Amman further confirmed the incident, but lessened its impact by saying those threatened by Fatah were only members of a "media delegation for the Jordanian army." Jordanian spokeswoman Khuder herself confirmed that the Jordanian delegation in the PA is a delegation representing the Moral Guidance Directorate in the Jordanian armed forces, as well as representatives of Jordanian media. The group is visiting two Jordanian military hospitals in Jenin and Ramallah, Arabicnews reported.