US embassy cable - 02AMMAN2693

S E C R E T AMMAN 002693 
 
SIPDIS 
 
NOFORN 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/27/2012 
TAGS: PREL, PTER, IR, SY, JO 
SUBJECT: JORDAN DECLINES TO DEMAND SEARCH OF IRANIAN PLANE; 
WILL LIKELY DENY CLEARANCE 
 
REF: SECSTATE 101892 
 
Classified By: Amb. Edward W. Gnehm for reasons 1.5 (B), (C), (D) 
 
1.  (S)  The Ambassador made ref points on Iranian aerial 
resupply of Hizballah May 27 to Foreign Minister Marwan 
Muasher.  PolCouns and Muasher's personal aide Ali al-Ayed 
were also present.  The Ambassador asked that Jordan grant 
overflight clearance for a possible May 28 Iranian resupply 
flight, then demand that the plane land for inspection once 
it enters Jordanian airspace. 
 
2.  (S/NF)  Muasher responded that a decision to take such 
action was "more security than political" and requested that 
we also consult through ORCA channels.  Noting that Saudi 
Arabia has much more airspace through which an Iranian plane 
would have to fly, he inquired whether the U.S. was making a 
parallel demarche in Saudi Arabia (the Ambassador confirmed 
that we were).  Muasher promised to check and get us an 
answer as soon as possible. 
 
3.  (S)  Less than an hour after the demarche, Ayed called 
PolCouns to say that the GOJ had decided that it could 
not/not grant clearance to an Iranian plane then demand that 
it submit for inspection.  Instead, as had been Jordan's 
recent practice, Ayed said, if Iran makes an overflight 
request, Jordan will likely not grant clearance.  He 
commented that only in one or two cases has Iran actually 
requested overflight of Jordan for a civilian cargo flight 
bound for Syria, despite the fact that the USG has made 
numerous demarches in recent months that such requests were 
forthcoming. 
 
4.  (S)  COMMENT:  The GOJ is clearly not ready to expose 
itself to Iran, Syria, and Hizballah by asking that an 
Iranian cargo flight land for inspection.  While they have 
not told us so, the Jordanians may calculate that an Iranian 
pilot would simply ignore or delay answering an inspection 
request for the few minutes the airplane would be in 
Jordanian airspace.  That would leave them politically 
exposed to no practical purpose.  They will likely, however, 
continue denying overflight clearance to Iranian civilian 
cargo planes about which we give them advance notice. 
Gnehm