Iran demanded an explanation of remarks by Jordan's King Abdullah yesterday, a day after sending him condolences over the death of his father.
Jordan's ambassador to Tehran was summoned to the foreign ministry on Sunday to hear a protest over reported remarks by King Abdullah branding Iran a threat to regional security.
The Iranian Foreign Minister, Mr Kamal Kharrazi, told a news conference yesterday that the envoy had denied the comments, published in the London-based al-Hayat newspaper, but Iran still wanted an official explanation.
Questioned by an Iranian journalist who said King Abdullah had repeated what he called this "Zionist and American position" in a later interview with the Washington Post, Mr Kharrazi said: "We are still awaiting the official denial of the Jordanian government . . . Of course this is an issue that the Jordanian government should officially explain."
The Washington Post quoted King Abdullah on Saturday as saying "Iran still causes a problem" despite the more moderate tone of the President, Mr Mohammad Khatami. "The Shia elements are still a concern," he said, in apparent reference to Iran's Shia Muslim revolution, which overthrew the Shah in 1979.
Tehran Radio reported that Mr Khatami had expressed condolences over the death of King Abdullah's father, King Hussein, to "the Hashemite family, the government and the people of Jordan" in a message on Sunday.
In a separate message, Mr Khatami congratulated the new king on ascending to the throne and expressed hope that relations between Iran and Jordan "will develop further towards achieving the high goals of the Islamic nation and the two countries' interests," it said. Mr Kharrazi said time had been too short for Iran to send a senior representative to King Hussein's funeral yesterday, but the Iranian ambassador in Amman had attended.
On Sunday, the Iranian Defence Minister, Mr Ali Shamkhani, called the new king an "amateur" for his reported comments.
Several Iranian newspapers have criticised King Hussein in the past for backing Baghdad in the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war, for signing a 1994 peace accord with Israel, and for his close ties to the West. Abrar, a newspaper close to the conservatives, called King Abdullah the "British king of Jordan" in reference to his British mother, and accused him of wishing to "carry out a colonial policy of creating divisions between Iran and the Arabs". The hardline Jomhuri Islami reported Jordanian opposition charges of "corruption and suppression of liberties" by the "government and advisers" of King Hussein.
An article in Salam ended with a veiled call on Jordanians to rise in revolt, saying it was waiting for the day when "the people of Jordan, like the Muslim people of Iran, will be master of its own destiny, and will not allow Zionism and dictatorship to violate its dignity."