Amman- The Jordanian Foreign Ministry said Tuesday that it was closely following up on the abduction of a Jordanian family in Beirut with the Lebanese authorities. A Jordanian mother and her three daughters, aged eight, five and three, were kidnapped on Thursday while they were in their private car waiting for the father at a Beirut hotel following an Eid al-Fitr feast, which celebrates the end of Ramadan.
"Foreign Minister Salah Bashir discussed the issue with his Lebanese counterpart and both sides are exerting all possible efforts to ensure the arrest of the perpetrators and free the kidnapped family," Director of the ministry's Consular Department Ahmad Mobaideen said.
The father, Motaz Abu Hammoudeh, told the daily Jordan Times over the phone from the Lebanese capital on Monday that he and the family "were preparing ourselves on Thursday morning to go sightseeing".
He said that he was told by somebody there that an unknown person got into the driving seat of his Peugeot 206 while his family was in the vehicle and quickly drove away.
"I immediately called the security people, who were very cooperative and responsive and circulated my car's description to their patrols," Abu Hammoudeh said, ruling out completely that the incident could be linked to an act of terrorism since he has "no political affiliations."
Abu Hammoudeh, who works at a private company in Amman, said that by Monday evening, he had not been contacted by the kidnappers and that no one had claimed responsibility for the abduction.
