Jordan denies reports it sent arms to Armenia

AMMAN

Jordanian authorities denied reports Tuesday the kingdom sent arms to Armenia during clashes on the Armenia-Azerbaijan border earlier this month.

Jordan said the Azerbaijan Ambassador to Amman Rasim Rzayev was summoned.

The move came one day after a statement by the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry on the summoning of Jordanian envoy in Baku Sami Abdullah Ghosheh.

The ministry expressed "astonishment" at the Azerbaijani diplomat for summoning the Jordanian ambassador and said Ghosheh was told that the meeting was for talks rather than a summoning.

The statement said the sale of weapons might have been made by private companies that bought weapons from Jordanian defense industries.

Deputy Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan Araz Azimov met Monday with Jordanian diplomat in Baku, and discussed the sale of weapons to Armenia by Jordan, adding that "the news spread about the sale of arms by Jordan to Armenia caused concern among the wide Azerbaijani public."

The Armenian army violated a cease-fire July 12 and attacked Azerbaijani border positions in the northwestern Tovuz district with artillery fire, and later withdrew after losses when Azerbaijan’s army pushed back.

Armenia martyred 12 Azerbaijani soldiers, including high-ranking officers, wounded four troops, and also killed one senior civilian.

Azerbaijan blamed Armenia for the "provocative" actions, with Ankara throwing its weight behind Baku, and warning Yerevan that it would not hesitate to stand against any kind of attack on its eastern neighbor.

The two former Soviet republics have long been locked in a conflict about Upper Karabakh.

Upper Karabakh, or Nagorno-Karabakh, an internationally recognized territory of Azerbaijan, has been illegally occupied since 1991 through Armenian military aggression.

Four UN Security Council and two UN General Assembly resolutions, as well as decisions by many international organizations, refer to this fact and demand the withdrawal of the occupational Armenian forces from Upper Karabakh and seven other occupied regions of Azerbaijan.

* Writing and contributions by Jeyhun Aliyev from Ankara