Politicians like to manipulate news outlets for their purposes. Below is a nice little example of how this works.
Today the Saudi owned fish-wrap Al Arabiya tweeted this:
Al Arabiya English @AlArabiya_Eng – 11:12 AM – 15 Jun 2018
#Jordan withdraws ambassador from #Iran: Source tells Al Arabiya English: “There is no intention to name another Jordanian envoy in #Tehran at the time,” the source said.
http://ara.tv/n4ngn
That tweet made me curious. I was pretty sure that Jordan had withdrawn its ambassador from Iran quite a while ago. Indeed – on April 18 2016 several outlets had reported such: Jordan follows Riyadh's lead and recalls Iran ambassador
Abdullah Abu Rumman, Jordan's ambassador to Iran, has been recalled to Amman over Tehran's policies towards Arab countries, said Mohammed Momani, the government spokesperson.
An Iranian contact confirms to me that there has been no Jordanian ambassador in Iran since April 2016.
What happened?
The Al Arabiya link goes to a page with the URL:
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2018/06/15/Jordan-withdraws-ambassador-from-Iran-Source-tells-Al-Arabiya.html
The original headline of the piece, visible in the URL, was "Jordan withdraws ambassador from Iran: Source tells Al Arabiya". It has since been changed to:
Jordan won’t name an ambassador to Iran: Source tells Al Arabiya English
A high-ranking Jordanian source told Al Arabiya English on Friday that Jordan transferred its ambassador Abdullah Abu Rumman from Iran to the Jordanian Foreign Ministry headquarters in Amman based on a decision by the Jordanian cabinet.
“There is no intention to name another Jordanian envoy in Tehran at the time,” the source told Al Arabiya English.
Commenting on the decision’s circumstances, the source reiterated: “Jordan’s fixed position from Iranian policies which include interfering in the affairs of the region’s countries,” and voiced Jordan’s concern over “the security of the region’s countries particularly of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council countries.”
“Saudi Arabia’s security is (part) of our security,” he said, adding: “We are concerned over our Arab and Gulf depth.”
In response to a question from Al Arabiya English, Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi stressed that “the security and stability of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is part of the security and stability of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan”.
…
It seems to me that the "high-ranking Jordanian source", very likely the later quoted Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi, scammed Al Arabiya. He used vague wording to insinuated that Jordan just now recalled its ambassador from Iran when that in fact had happened two years ago. It took a while for Al Arabiya to recognize that it had been had and to change its headline.
A week ago I wrote about how U.S.-Saudi Pressure On Jordan Opens The Way For Iran. Jordan is in economic and political trouble. It needs financial sponsors. Saudi Arabia and the U.S., its traditional donors, are pressing for an Israel policy that the Jordan's King can not support. I speculated that this might give an opening for Iran.
But the Jordan king decided differently. He went to Saudi Arabia, met the Saudi King and received a nice package to help him over his budget difficulties. On June 10 Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait coughed up fresh money for Jordan:
Saudi Arabia and two Persian Gulf nations pledged $2.5 billion to help support Jordan’s economy after a proposed income-tax increase sparked some of the largest protests since the Arab Spring in 2011.
The package of aid will include a deposit in the Central Bank of Jordan, guarantees to the World Bank on Jordan and annual support for the Jordanian government’s budget for five years, according to a statement posted on the state-run Saudi Press Agency website.
Qatar is currently in a cold war with Saudi Arabia but it wants to stay in the traditional Gulf competition of collecting favors:
AMMAN, Jordan (AP) — Jordan's royal court says Qatar's foreign minister has promised to invest $500 million in infrastructure projects in the kingdom and provide 10,000 jobs for Jordanians in his country.
The combination of the false Al Arabiya tweet and the recent shower of money for Jordan led some to speculate that the presumed "recall" of the ambassador from Iran was part of a deal.
Borzou Daragahi @borzou – 10:53 AM – 15 Jun 2018
Days after Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Kuwait hand Jordan $2.5 billion, Amman reportedly pulls its ambassador to Iran, says @AlArabiya, citing unnamed sources
—
Aaron Magid @AaronMagid – 11:25 AM – 15 Jun 2018
Days after Jordan receives $2.5 billion from Saudi Arabia & Arab gulf countries, Amman withdraws its ambassador from Iran, reports @AlArabiya_
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Guy Elster @guyelster – 11:15 AM – 15 Jun 2018
#Jordan reportedly withdraws its ambassador from #Iran, probably under pressure from Saudi Arabia (maybe Israel also)
Daragahi, Magid and Elster are so called journalists who regularly write about the Middle East.
Jordan's foreign minister played this well. After his country received money from the Saudis it needed to publicly show gratitude. The foreign minister calls Al Arabiya and plants the "Jordan withdraws ambassador from Iran" myth by making the old news of the ambassador recall from Iran look like fresh action. Al Arabiya and various so called journalists fall for it and spread the news that Jordan indeed appreciates the Saudi gift and follows Saudi policy directives. In reality Jordan did nothing.
This was an excellent public relation maneuver. People with little knowledge of Middle Eastern politics or a short memory evidently fell for it.
To others it is another lecture on why one can not trust the 'news'.
