After a public outcry, Jordan officially calls on the Damascus regime to release its detained citizens

Hadeel Al Rawabdeh - Amman

The families of dozens of Jordanians detained in Syria since the opening of the Jaber crossing in mid-October have not stopped asking about the fate of their children who disappeared after entering Syria for tourism, while the Jordanian Foreign Ministry confirmed on Thursday its demand for a proper regime for the immediate release of more than 30 Jordanians held there.

Foreign Ministry Spokesman Sufian al-Qudah said that the charge d'affaires of the Syrian embassy in Amman Ayman Alloush had been summoned and asked to convey to the regime in Damascus the concern and resentment of the government over the repeated detention of Jordanian citizens without giving reasons.

The judges said that if there is any reservation or doubt in any Jordanian citizen by the Syrian security authorities, it is best to return him to Jordan and not to allow him to enter, but to be entered and then his arrest is unacceptable, especially since the number of detainees since the reopening of the border continues to rise.

"The Syrian side did not respond clearly and did not show any kind of cooperation to clarify the reasons for the arrest of the Jordanians and the conditions of their detention. The Jordanian embassy in Damascus was unable to meet any detainee or know anything," a ministry statement said. About their circumstances.

Negative messages
Jordanian observers regard the arrests as "negative" political messages against Jordan, which extended its arm in good faith to the Syrian side after the opening of the crossing, starting with the appointment of a Jordanian diplomat at the Jordanian embassy in Damascus.

The first visit of the Jordanian parliamentary delegation to Syria came to "break the ice" without addressing the issue of the detainees, according to al-Jazeera Net, head of the parliamentary foreign affairs committee Nidal al-Ta'ani.

An official source told Al-Jazeera Net that citizens should be made aware of the need to refrain from traveling to Syria, in light of the difficulty of restricting the movement of citizens at the crossing after its official opening.

For example, the fate of 31-year-old Amir Gharaybeh remains unclear since he was arrested during his visit to Damascus at the "Menkat Hatab" checkpoint. The family of Jordanian journalist Raafat Nabhan, 40, is in a state of anxiety following his arrest during He traveled from Lebanon to Syria on 7 March.

Bashar, Raafat's brother, told Al-Jazeera Net that mediators from the Jordanian and Syrian sides have been negotiating "bribes" worth $ 50,000 to release his brother, but he does not have the money and can not trust the mediators.

The Francophone Human Rights Association issued a statement expressing its concern that the arrest of the Syrian regime at Nabhan on the border crossing with Lebanon was motivated by retaliation for its press work and called on the regime to respect the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which prohibits the detention of journalists.

Filter accounts
The Jordanian MP and former Bar Association leader Saleh al-Armouti called on the government to play its role towards citizens' lives and dignity, to prevent new incidents, to announce the names of detainees and to intervene strictly to release them.

Al-Armouti told Al-Jazeera Net that the Syrian regime seeks to "settle accounts" with Jordan, saying that he "does not trust his side," especially in the absence of recognition of the arrests.

The Syrian website Zaman al-Wasl published a leaked list of 8,845 names of Jordanian citizens, including dead women and children, who said they were wanted by the Syrian regime, but the Syrian charge d'affaires considered it a "fabrication of imagination".

Al-Armouti, who was named on the same list, warned Jordanians not to travel to Syria for safety, recalling the lost citizenship of Wafa 'Ubaidat, who has been there for about a quarter of a century.

Al-Jazeera Net was unable to obtain a reply from Alloush, who considered the case sensitive and accurate and can not be discussed over the telephone. He preferred to respond during a visit to the Syrian Embassy in order to ensure the accuracy of his response.