Tuesday, January 22, 2019
Elder of ZiyonChief of the Civil Aviation Regulatory Commission (CARC), Haitham Mesto, Monday reiterated Jordan's rejection of Israel's unilateral move to open and operate an airport in its current location in the south, unless it meets international criteria and the Kingdom's interests.
Mesto said that Jordan's rejection comes as the airport, near the southern city of Eilat, is in breach of international criteria regarding the respect of the sovereignty of the space and territory of other countries when operating the facility.
As far as I can tell, Jordan is concerned that airplanes landing in the new Ramon Airport will violate its airspace, since the airport is very close to the border with Jordan.
Here's the hypocrisy. Jordan's King Hussein Airport is just about as close to the border as Ramon Airport is. If Israel's new airport threatens to violate Jordan'a airspace, then Jordan's airport does the same to Israel.
Jordan is simply trying to irritate Israel even though there is little reason for airplanes landing at Ramon to violate Jordanian airspace.
Interestingly, while the 1994 Jordan/Israel peace treaty says that each nation will respect the airspace of the other, Israel does allow planes to overfly Israel en route to Jordan as a separate agreement - an agreement Israel can easily drop.
If Jordan decides to make a stink over this - and I cannot find anything in international air agreements that Israel would be violating, as the kingdom claims - it can lose far more than it can gain.
