Jordan denies hosting secret Saudi-Israel talks(AFP) 7 October 2006
AMMAN - Jordan has strongly denied Israeli press reports that it secretly hosted talks between Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and senior Saudi officials.These reports are sheer fantasy and completely wrong, government spokesman Nasser Jawdeh said in comments carried by Jordanian dailies Saturday.All the allegations carried by various media about secret meetings in Jordan between Israeli officials and Jordanian, Saudi, Egyptian or Palestinian officials, be they of a security or political nature, are totally false, Jawdeh said.
These sorts of reports are put about every time there are positive signs emerging in the peace process, probably with a view to damaging it and creating a climate of suspicion around it.
Israel’s top-selling daily Yediot Aharonot reported Thursday that Olmert had held a secret meeting lasting several hours with Saudi officials at the palace of Jordan’s King Abdullah II.According to the paper, Olmert flew to Amman by helicopter for the night-time meeting, accompanied by his chief of staff and a top military attache.The meeting was organized by the Jordanian monarch and the chief of Israel’s Mossad spy agency, Meir Dagan, the paper said, without identifying the Saudi officials involved.
Last month, Olmert left it understood during a radio interview that he had met a member of the Saudi royal family, as earlier reported by the media.
We have decided that on this subject I am going to deliver a denial but you don’t have to believe it,said Olmert when challenged about the press reports that such a meeting had taken place.On other matters, believe all my denials, he added.Following the earlier reports, Saudi Arabia said reports of contacts between Saudi and Israeli officials were fabricated.
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