Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tried to stop flights from Jordan after being barred from flying to the UAE on Thursday via the Hashemite Kingdom’s airspace.
Transportation Minister Miri Regev approved Netanyahu’s demand and with the instruction gave the relevant bodies 45 minutes to inform their Jordanian counterparts about the change.
Netanyahu was allegedly so angered by the Jordanian refusal to allow him to fly over its airspace to visit the UAE he ordered the move without speaking with anyone else, including the top ranking experts who are meant to offer the government guidance within the intelligence or diplomatic communities.
Rather than obeying the instruction the airport officials flatly refused to carry it out, simply posing the Transportation Ministry a series of questions such as: What would happen to planes already in the air who planned on heading to their destination over Israel? Is Israel going to demand US planes also bypass it if they come from the east?
Allegedly, once cabinet secretary Tzachi Braverman was informed that such a move would cause a massive retaliation, he checked with the prime minister only to return with a simple message: Do as Netanyahu said.
The report claims that the Jordanians never actually refused Netanyahu anything but rather declined to give the UAE plane in Jordan permission to fly to Israel to pick up the prime minister. The UAE also did not blame their hosts but “technical issues.”
