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Jordan lawmaker accuses his nation’s army of protecting Israel

January 19, 2017 at 12:48 pm

Image of Jordanian MP Tariq Khuri [aljazeera]

Jordanian MP Tariq Khuri accused the Jordanian armed forces of protecting Israel, causing outrage among other lawmakers that ended a parliamentarian meeting on Tuesday, Al Jazeera reported yesterday.

Khuri, well-known for his support of Syrian dictator President Bashar Al-Assad, also accused Jordan’s allies of helping the ousted Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi to attain the presidency in 2012 as they, according to him, supported him financially.

The MP also accused the Jordanian government of helping current President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, the man who overthrew the Morsi administration, which was Egypt’s first and only democratically elected government before it was put to an end by the Sisi regime’s putsch.

MPs from the Reform Bloc, which represents the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood, withdrew from the meeting after Khuri’s outburst, and attempted to prevent Khuri from completing his speech. This caused chaos in parliament that led to the Speaker ending the session to preserve order.

Later on, a spokeswoman for the Reform Bloc, Dima Tahboub, told Anadolu that Khuri’s speech included false information that needed a response, noting that Abdullah Al-Akayleh, the Bloc’s head, had said that what Khuri was saying was completely incorrect.

She also said that 15 members of her party withdrew from the session after Khuri spoke offensively towards them, likening the Brotherhood MPs to Daesh. The controversial MP refused to apologise for his comments.

The Muslim Brotherhood is largely viewed as a moderate Islamist group, with the British parliamentary Foreign Affairs Select Committee releasing a report late last year that concluded that the Brotherhood were not a terrorist organisation.