Israeli Diplomat Shot in JordanAn Israeli diplomat was shot and injured Tuesday night by an unidentified gunman when he was driving in western Amman, informed sources said.The unnamed diplomat was rushed to a nearby hospital and was reported to be in a stable condition with injuries to his left leg. The gunman ran away after the shooting. This was the second shooting incident in three weeks against Israeli diplomats in the Arab kingdom where anti-Israeli sentiment is running high due to Israeli troops' "suppression" against Palestinian protestors in the Palestinian territories over the past nine weeks. The ongoing clashes between Palestinian protesters and Israeli forces have claimed nearly 300 lives, mostly Palestinians, and injured thousands others. An Israeli diplomat escaped gun shots on November 19 on his way to the Israeli embassy in western Amman, but sustained minor injuries from his car glasses broken by the bullets. Jordan, signing a peace treaty with Israel in 1994, is one of the only two Arab states that have signed a peace treaty with the Jewish state. Diplomats Fear Possible Israeli Attack on Lebanon and SyriaForeign diplomats in the region expressed their concern over possible Israeli attacks on the targets along the Lebanese-Israeli and Syrian-Israeli borders, local media reported in Beirut Tuesday, December 5.The leftist daily "Al Kifah Al Arabi" quoted some Western diplomats, mainly from the United States, France and Italy, as saying that they are worried about the "darkening specter" of a new Middle East war as Israel has reportedly braced for infrastructure assaults on 40 targets across Lebanon. The paper quoted U.S. Ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk as saying that "Israel may be drawn soon into a regional war with its Arab neighbors and the danger of a major conflagration is real." "Israel has selected 40 military and infrastructure targets to hit in Lebanon with sophisticated weapons similar to those the NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) used in Kosovo," it also quoted unidentified European diplomats in Beirut. US Ambassador in Beirut David Satterfield also expressed his concern over the escalation of tension in the region. "It is in the interest of all parties to focus on efforts to de-escalate tensions and it is in their interests to exercise the highest degree of responsibility to guarantee the de-escalation on the border", he said. On the other side, Lebanon informed Western ambassadors that the Israel offensive would provoke "violent guerrillas attacks in Israel's depth." Lebanon insists that its border with Israel will not see peace as long as the Jewish state occupies the Shebaa Farms, a 200-square kilometer land along the borders between Lebanon, Syria and Israel. Lebanon claims sovereignty of the farms while Israel insists that it seized the farms from Syria and their fate would be decided in its negotiations with Damascus. |
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