Jordan Rejects to Impose Trade Sanctions on Syria
Jordan has told the Arab League it does not want to impose trade sanctions and a flight ban on neighboring Syria, the foreign ministry said on Monday.
"We asked the Arab League ministerial committee in Doha last Saturday to exclude Jordan's trade and aviation sectors from the sanctions," foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Kayed told Agence France Presse.
"We support Arab League decisions, but Jordan will be affected negatively by the sanctions, which will harm our interests."
The meeting in Doha listed 19 Syrian officials it said would be banned from travel to Arab countries and whose assets would be frozen by those states.
The panel also called for an embargo on the sale of Arab arms to Syria and cut by half the number of Arab flights into and out of Syria -- including its national carrier Syrian Air -- with effect from December 15.
Total bilateral trade between Jordan and Syria since 2000 is estimated at $7 billion, according to the kingdom's statistics department. In the first nine months of 2011, bilateral trade stood at around $550 million.
National carrier Royal Jordanian operates two flights a day to Syria -- one to Damascus and one to Aleppo.
Syria's security forces have brutally suppressed a popular revolt in a crackdown that has seen 4,000 people killed since mid-March, according to U.N. figures.
Source: Agence France Presse
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