ISRAEL SECURITY OFFICIALS RECOMMEND BARRIER ON JORDAN BORDER
Egypt near the resort of Eilat, March 9, 2014 (Photo: AFP/File Jack Guez)
Al-Quds (Jerusalem), 24 Jumadil Awwal 1436/15 March 2015 (MINA)– Israeli security officials have recommended building a barrier along the border with Jordan — the state’s only frontier that does not yet feature a fence.
“Security officials recommended the construction of a security barrier to protect the new airport which will be built at Timna,” some 20 kilometers (12 miles) north of the resort city of Eilat, an army spokeswoman said, without elaborating, Ma’an News Agency quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting.
Work has already begun on the new airport near Eilat, which lies across the Jordanian border from the port city of Aqaba.
Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that the planned 30-kilometer (19-mile) barrier was designed both to protect the airport and to foil attempts by would-be “jihadist infiltrators” from Jordan, supposedly a reference to the Islamist State group active in Iraq and Syria.
It was unclear whether the government would approve construction of the fence.
Israeli authorities have previously hinted at plans to build a wall on the Jordanian border inside the West Bank, complementing the existing separation wall that runs inside the West Bank that de facto annexes large areas around Jewish settlements.
Israel has a fence on its southern border with Egypt, also near Eilat, that was erected in 2013 to keep out African immigrants.
Israel also has a border fence with the Gaza Strip and barriers on the frontiers with Syria and Lebanon, both countries it is technically at war with.
The huge steel fence that runs along the Syrian frontier through the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights was built after the Syrian civil war broke out, for fear of a spillover of fighting and an influx of refugees. (T/P010/R04)
Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)
