Israeli ambassador returns to embassy in Amman

Remaining officials set to return next week after being evacuated when protests outside mission call for end of peace treaty with Israel.

Jordan embassy protest 311 (photo credit: Reuters)
Jordan embassy protest 311
(photo credit: Reuters)
Israeli ambassador to Jordan, Daniel Nevo, on Friday returned to Amman after being evacuated Wednesday and brought back to Israel as a protective precaution when mass protests were organized outside the mission in the Jordanian capital.
All diplomatic personnel at the embassy, with the exception of the No. 2 official there, left Amman on Wednesday. Generally, because of overall security concerns and the short distance between the countries, the staff – whose families are not with them during the week – return to Israel each Thursday for the weekend.
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The decision on Wednesday to order an early departure of embassy personnel was taken five days after the 13-hour rampage at the embassy in Cairo, during which six Israeli security guards locked themselves behind a steel door as mobs ransacked the mission.
Egyptian commandos rescued them from the Cairo embassy, as protesters broke into archives and threw documents from the building’s windows into the street below where demonstrators were celebrating.
The plan for the protest in Amman comes amid increasing voices in Jordan calling for an end to the normalization of ties with Israel.
Several hundred protesters outside of the embassy in Amman called on Thursday for Jordan to cancel the peace treaty with Israel, Israel Radio reported.
Israeli officials have said recently that the Jordanian government has not done enough to quell those voices, and that this has led to a significant decrease in contact and trade between the two countries.