US embassy cable - 04AMMAN689

S E C R E T AMMAN 000689 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/27/2014 
TAGS: PREL, IS, JO 
SUBJECT: SHALOM VISIT POSTPONED 
 
Classified By: CDA David Hale for reasons 1.5 (b) (d) 
 
1.  (S)  By mutual Jordanian-Israeli agreement, Israeli 
Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom's January 28 visit to Jordan 
has been postponed.  Jordanian Foreign Minister Marwan 
Muasher told Charge late January 27 that Shalom refused to 
come without a scheduled meeting with King Abdullah, an 
ultimatum Muasher found unacceptable.  He told Charge the 
King had real scheduling problems but didn't want to see 
Shalom in any event.  Muasher asked Shalom to reconsider, 
arguing that he and PM Faisal al-Fayez still wanted to 
receive him.  Muasher feigned disappointment, telling Charge 
the government would now look as if it had backed down when 
confronted with parliamentary opposition to the visit. 
Although Muasher emphasized that there was "no political 
dimension" to the failure to set a meeting with the King, his 
office director (protect) told PolCouns that the Israeli 
insistence on a meeting with the King was "aimed only at 
Israeli public opinion" and did not take into consideration 
Jordan's increasingly vocal parliamentary opposition.  He 
cast the refusal to schedule a meeting with the King as 
designed to protect the King personally from the expected 
political fallout from the visit. 
 
2.  (S)  The Israeli Ambassador here told Charge (somewhat 
contradictorily) that the Jordanian position was both an 
effort to sideline Shalom (intolerable for Shalom 
politically) and a pretext designed to engineer an Israeli 
cancellation and postpone an increasingly inconvenient visit, 
and on the second point we share his analysis.  In 
particular, the breakthrough on an Israeli-Hizballah prisoner 
exchange, and statements by Hizballah SYG Nasrallah claiming 
that Jordanian prisoner releases were part of the deal, 
embarrassed the Jordanians, as just such a release was to be 
the primary outcome of the Shalom visit.  The Israeli 
Ambassador told us that despite unhappiness with the collapse 
of the proposed visit, Shalom remained committed to the 
process of returning the prisoners. 
 
3.  (S)  Comment:  This development shows the degree to which 
aspects of Jordan-Israel relations are increasing affected by 
perceived slights, and may make progress on a range of 
issues, including prisoner releases and outstanding trade and 
economic relations, harder to attain.  However, core defense 
and intelligence ties remain strong and insulated from these 
irritants. 
 
Visit Embassy Amman's classified website at 
 
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/nea/amman/ 
 
or access the site through the State Department's SIPRNET 
home page. 
HALE