Washington and Amman Publicly Contradict Each Other Over Aqaba
The American embassy in Amman issued a security alert saying Jordan was “evacuating the King Hussein International Airport and seaport in the Red Sea resort town of Aqaba due to a specific and credible threat”, advising citizens to avoid both sites and all Jordanian military installations. Within hours the Jordanian government flatly denied it. The dispute came a day after Washington confirmed two American personnel had been killed in Jordan, with a third missing.
The government spokesman, Dr Mohammad Al-Momani, told Reuters in a written statement that “no potential threats have been recorded by the relevant Jordanian authorities in the past few hours” and that “the airport and port are operating normally”; the director general of the Aqaba Company for Ports separately confirmed no evacuation had taken place. Such an open split between an American mission and a close Arab security partner is rare, and points to Amman’s acute discomfort at being seen as a co-belligerent while Iranian missiles cross its airspace. Aqaba sits directly alongside the Israeli resort of Eilat, giving Tehran a target that is deniable as anti-Israeli. Watch whether the embassy withdraws or restates the alert.