RISHEH, Jordan -- Israel on Monday withdrew from most of the Jordanian land it has occupied for 27 years, in the first phase of a peace treaty the Jewish state signed with Jordan on Oct. 26.
Jordanian army officers took control of 340 square kilometers in the southern Wadi Araba desert from a point near the southern tip of the Dead Sea south to a crossing the two countries opened in August.
Brigadier General Tahsin Shurdom, head of a joint borders and security committee with Israel, said Monday's withdrawal took place in formal ceremonies at three points along a 170-kilometer stretch of the border.
He said the territory was occupied by Israel at varying times in two years after the 1967 Middle East war.
Jordan, anxious to show the fruits of its peace accord with Israel, played up the occasion. The official media gave extensive coverage, unlike in Israel, where the event appeared to have been treated in a low-key manner.
Under the peace treaty, Israel will return 380 square kilometers of Jordanian land, including territory further south as well as in the north, near the confluence of the Yarmouk and Jordan rivers.
The withdrawal is scheduled to be completed by Feb. 10, three months to the day after King Hussein and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin formally exchanged the documents of ratification of the peace treaty.
The treaty formally ended 46 years of war between Jordan and Israel and opened the way for full diplomatic relations and economic cooperation.
As Israeli-Jordanian peace agreements were realized Monday, the Israeli-Palestinian peace process looked increasingly fragile, with PLO leader Yasser Arafat saying that Israel's ban on the entry of Palestinians from self-ruled Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank was a breach of the 1993 deal.
"This is really a breach of what had been agreed upon and signed in Washington," Arafat said when asked about the ban imposed after two Islamic Jihad suicide bombers killed 21 Israelis north of Tel Aviv last week. ()
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