Israeli envoy to Jordan leaving

JERUSALEM, Jan. 28 (JTA) — Professor Shimon Shamir, Israel’s ambassador to Jordan, has announced that he is leaving the post in February. An embassy spokesman denied rumors circulating in the Jordanian capital of Amman that Shamir’s decision had anything to do with political differences between the ambassador and the current Israeli leadership. Shamir, 52, was appointed Israel’s first ambassador to Jordan in March 1995 by the previous Labor-led government, which signed a peace treaty with the Hashemite kingdom in October 1994.