Amman - Israel is trying to block Jordan's bids to obtain nuclear technology for peaceful uses through agreements with the world's leading nuclear powers, the daily Alarab Alyawm reported Wednesday, citing a senior diplomat. Over the past three years, Israel "sought to obstruct the signing of any nuclear cooperation with Jordan," the paper quoted an unnamed senior Jordanian diplomat as saying.
"Israeli agents were following closely the movements of the President of the Jordan Atomic Energy Commission (JAEC), Khalid Touqan, and his discussions with concerned officials in other states of the world, and tried by all means to sway those countries not to sign cooperation agreements with Jordan," the diplomat said.
The Israeli ambassador in Jordan violated all diplomatic conventions many times by trying to convince ambassadors of Western countries accredited to Jordan to block the signing of nuclear cooperation agreements with Jordan, the paper reported. "The envoys confided this to their friends in Amman."
On Sunday, Jordan inked a nuclear cooperation agreement with Britain, the latest of a series of such accords. Similar agreements had previously been signed with Canada, France, the United States, Russia, China and South Korea.
Jordan and other Arab countries have come to show increasing interest in possession of nuclear technology after Iran went adamantly ahead with its nuclear programme over the past few years.
