CAIRO: Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said on Saturday that the kingdom would not be a battlefield for Iran or Israel, as the region braces for a possible new wave of attacks by Tehran and its allies following last week’s killing of senior members of militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah.
“We will not be a battlefield for Iran or Israel. We informed the Iranians and the Israelis that we will not allow anyone to violate our airspace and risk the safety of our citizens,” the Jordanian foreign minister said in an interview with Saudi-owned Al Arabiya TV.
“We will intercept anything that passes through our airspace or think that it constitutes a threat to us or our citizens.”
In April, Jordan, which lies between Iran and Israel, said it intercepted flying objects that entered its airspace as Tehran launched explosive drones and fired missiles at Israel in the first direct retaliatory attack of its kind.
After that attack, which was launched in retaliation for a suspected Israeli strike on Iran’s embassy compound in Syria, Jordanian, Iraqi and Turkish officials each said Iran had provided them with some early warning of its action.
Iran has repeatedly vowed to “punish” Israel since the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of Iran-backed Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Tehran on July 31. Iran and Hamas blamed Israel for the killing.
Israel has not claimed or denied responsibility for the killing, which has fueled concerns that the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip could spill into a wider Middle East conflict.
Those concerns have also been stoked by the killing of Lebanese armed group Hezbollah’s top military commander, Fuad Shukr, in an Israeli strike in Beirut’s southern suburbs hours before the assassination of Haniyeh.
Jordan will not be a battlefield for Iran or Israel, foreign minister warns
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Jordan will not be a battlefield for Iran or Israel, foreign minister warns
- “We informed the Iranians and the Israelis that we will not allow anyone to violate our airspace and risk the safety of our citizens,” the Jordanian foreign minister said
- “We will intercept anything that passes through our airspace“
Iranian president offers talks as protests spread
- Government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani said a dialogue mechanism would be set up and include talks with protest leaders
TEHRAN: Protests over Iran’s soaring cost of living spread to several universities on Tuesday, with students joining shopkeepers and bazaar merchants, semi-official media reported, as the government offered dialogue with demonstrators.
Iran’s rial currency has lost nearly half its value against the dollar in 2025, with inflation reaching 42.5 percent in December in a country where unrest has repeatedly flared in recent years and which is facing US sanctions and threats of Israeli strikes.
FASTFACTS
• The leadership acknowledges protests stem from economic pressure, promises monetary reforms.
• Iranian rial hits record low under the impact of Western sanctions.
President Masoud Pezeshkian said in a social media post late that he had asked the interior minister to listen to “legitimate demands” of protesters.
Government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani said a dialogue mechanism would be set up and include talks with protest leaders.
“We officially recognize the protests ... We hear their voices and we know that this originates from natural pressure arising from the pressure on people’s livelihoods,” she said on Tuesday in comments carried by state media.
Video of protests in Tehran showed scores of people marching along a street chanting “Rest in peace Reza Shah,” a reference to the founder of the royal dynasty ousted in the 1979 revolution.
Footage aired on Iranian state television on Monday showed people gathered in central Tehran chanting slogans. The semi-official Fars News Agency reported that hundreds of students held protests on Tuesday at four universities in Tehran.
