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Jordan confiscates evidence of Arab support for terror groups |
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Sunday, 22 April 2007 |
Jordanian authorities on Saturday confiscated the videotape of an interview
with the country's former crown prince by Al-Jazeera Television, the Qatar-based
satellite broadcaster and a Jordanian official said.
The tape was confiscated as an Al-Jazeera reporter was about to leave the
Hashemite kingdom. No further details about the circumstances of the seizure
were immediately known.
Nasser Judeh, the chief Jordanian government spokesman, confirmed the
videotape's confiscation but said it had nothing to do with the content of the
interview with Prince Hassan, the uncle to Jordan's King Abdullah II and one
time heir to the Jordanian throne.
Meanwhile, Al-Jazeera aired a statement by Ghassan Ben Jeddou, the network's
bureau chief in Beirut, Lebanon, who had interviewed Prince Hassan in Amman and
who said the tape contained remarks by the Jordanian royal claiming that a
national security adviser in Saudi Arabia was financing Sunni militants to fight
Lebanese Shi'a resistance movement Hezbollah
The network identified the Saudi official as Prince Bandar bin Sultan, a former
Saudi ambassador to Washington.
In the interview, Prince Hassan also sharply criticized United States policies
in the region as destructive, Ben Jeddou said.
Ben Jeddou said that the Jordanian authorities informed the channel's office in
Amman that the seizure was an official measure by Jordanian authorities and that
they have no problem with al-Jazeera.
Ben Jeddou said the confiscation was a mistake by the Jordanians. The reporter
also cited the Jordanians as telling him that there were higher interests for
the country than dealing with what you reporters call freedom of journalism.
Hassan was the brother of King Hussein but was dismissed as crown prince in a
1999 royal shake-up by Hussein shortly before his death that year. He is a
moderate who does not hold any official role in Jordanian politics but is has
considerable influence among decision makers.
A spokesman for Prince Hassan declined to comment the incident.
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