Israeli authorities have released a Jordanian lawmaker to his home country, after he allegedly tried smuggling dozens of rifles and handguns through an Israeli-controlled border crossing.
On Sunday, legislator Imad al Adwan was handed over to Jordanian security authorities who will continue investigating the case, Israel's domestic security agency said.
Al Adwan was arrested on April 22 with bags full of more than 200 guns, the Shin Bet agency said in a statement.
It said its investigation revealed that Al Adwan carried out 12 separate smuggling attempts since early 2022, using his diplomatic passport to bring in anything from electronic cigarettes to gold to birds.
The Shin Bet said that since the start of the year, he made numerous successful attempts to smuggle in arms. The smuggling was done in exchange for unspecified amounts of money, the Shin Bet said.
Jordan's Foreign Ministry, as well as a brother of Al Adwan, could not immediately be reached for comment.
Al Adwan's arrest threatened to further strain ties between Israel and neighboring Jordan, which have had tense relations recently despite a nearly three-decade-old peace treaty.
Israel viewed the incident as serious, but Al Adwan’s release signaled it was hoping to put the potentially combustible affair behind it.
Increase in smuggled weapons
The occupied West Bank has seen a surge in violence over the past year.
Israel says the area has been flooded with illegal weapons, including guns smuggled from neighbouring Jordan.
Since Israel’s hard-line government took office late last year, relations with Jordan have deteriorated over Israel's expansion of illegal settlement construction as well as deadly military raids in the occupied West Bank and in and around holy sites in occupied East Jerusalem.
The ties were at their lowest point in 2017, when a security guard at the Israeli embassy in Jordan shot and killed two Jordanians, alleging one attacked him with a screw driver.
The Israeli guard and Israel’s then-ambassador were given a hero’s welcome by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, infuriating Jordan.
Jordan controlled the occupied West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem before Israel occupied the areas in the 1967 Mideast war, but the kingdom retains custodianship of the Al Aqsa Mosque and other Muslim holy sites in the Old City.
