House speaker wants gov’t to look into ‘Syrian insults’ against MP

AMMAN — Lower House Speaker Atef Tarawneh on Wednesday slammed the Syrian embassy in Amman for its insults against a Jordanian lawmaker who criticised Syrian President Bashar Assad under the Dome.

In its statement, the embassy carried out an “unprecedented” verbal attack on MP Abdullah Obeidat (Irbid, 5th District) in response to his strongly worded remarks against Assad during Lower House deliberations over the draft 2014 state budget, the speaker said.

Tarawneh demanded that the government investigate the embassy reaction and accordingly provide the MPs with feedback.

His request came at the beginning of the Lower House’s Wednesday session, in which he addressed the deputies and the government over the issue. 

He stressed that such behaviours by the Syrian embassy in Amman are not acceptable at all and that it “violate all diplomatic norms and protocols”, adding that the statement includes “implied threats”.

Obeidat exercised his constitutional right and expressed his own view about the Syrian crisis; his statements do not represent the Lower House’s stand, Tarawneh said.

“We have suffered from the Syrian crisis with the influx of hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees into the country, the political stands of regional powers, and finally the repeated insults against anyone who expresses opinions that oppose the Syrian embassy’s point of view,” the speaker said.

Obeidat had opened his speech in Parliament on Monday with the statement “no peace for Assad”. 

He went on to say that the Syrian president’s life will be short.

Two days later, the press office in the Syrian embassy in Amman issued a statement criticising his remarks.

The embassy called Obeidat a “nobody” and an “idiot” who insulted the “symbol of the Syrian people”.

In June last year, Syrian Ambassador to Jordan Bahjat Suleiman attacked MP Bassam Manasir, describing him as a “servant of the enemies of Syria and Jordan” after the lawmaker had called for expelling the envoy over his “provocative attitude”.

Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh said at the time that the Syrian ambassador had “violated all diplomatic norms” through his remarks and attitude, threatening to treat him as “persona non grata” should this attitude continue.