STATEMENT BY OFFICIAL GOVERNMENT SPOKESMAN

PETRA (Jordan State News Agency)

July 7, 2002

The Jordanian government's official spokesman Sunday denied the British The Observer report of potentials of using Jordanian territory in an American offensive against Iraq.

Minister of Information and government spokesman Muhammad Udwan said that such reports are a part of a suspected propaganda campaign against Jordan which has started to raise doubt in our solid national and pan-Arab stands concerning all of our brethren, particularly in Iraq and Palestine.

Udwan denied also the existence of any foreign forces on Jordanian territories . He stressed that such reports are totally untrue.

Jordan, under the leadership of His Majesty King Abdullah II, does its utmost , through continued contacts regionally and internationally, for lifting the sanctions imposed on brotherly Iraq and to prevent any military action against it, Udwan affirmed. Jordan's stand in this regard is fixed and well known, he added. The sole means for dealing with the Iraqi issue is dialogue , and we still hope that dialogue between Iraq and UN will continue to end the suffering the brotherly Iraqi people is living through, he said.

Udwan affirmed that Jordan completely rejects the principal of interference in Arab brethren's internal affairs, and rejects as well to be a base for action against any brotherly country. He expressed rejection to use Jordan's territory and airspace for such targets.

Such biased reports will not achieve their targets of harming our relations with our brethren and will not hinder Jordan carry out its pan Arab duties, Dr. Udwan concluded.

Earlier Minister of Foreign Affairs Marwan Muasher received Iraqi ambassador to Jordan Sabah Yassin, where he renewed Jordan's fixed stand that calls for rejection of using force against Iraq, keenness on Iraqi territorial integrity, security and stability, and lifting the sanctions imposed against it. Muasher affirmed that these reports, which try to harm Jordan's brotherly relations with Iraq, are false.

On his part Iraqi ambassador to Jordan Sabah Yassin hailed the brotherly relations that bind the two countries .

Following his meeting with Muasher, he told PETRA that the Foreign Minister has reiterated Jordan's respect to Iraq's sovereignty, as well as to bilateral relations between the two brotherly countries.