AMMAN, Jordan, Aug. 22 (UPI) -- Jordan has rejected Iraq's criticism that it failed to act firmly in helping to combat the terrorism that has been sweeping Iraq.
An official source quoted in Amman's daily al-Rai said Monday that Iraq never asked Jordan to sign a joint agreement to combat terrorism, "although Jordan's stance is clear about condemning and fighting terrorism through regional and international efforts."
Iraqi government spokesman Laith Kibbe, commenting Sunday on Friday's rocket attack on Jordan's port of Aqaba, said Iraq sympathized with its neighbor, especially in that Iraqis were among the suspects involved in the attack.
"We have warned in the past that the wrath of terrorism, which is blazing in Iraq and which has been ignored by some countries, will spill over," Kibbe said. "It is in the interest of all to extinguish the blaze before it reaches them, and we have to have an agreement with Jordan on combating terrorism."
Two of Saddam Hussein's daughters and the families of many former Iraqi officials sought refuge in Amman after the fall of Baghdad in April 2003.
Jordan has affirmed that it hosts the Iraqis for purely humanitarian reasons and that it has banned them from any political action on its territory.
