Two Israel Defense Force officers were arrested in Jordan early this month and are under interrogation for espionage, according to the Abu Dhabi newspaper Al-Itihad, quoted by Maariv Sunday.
The IDF has disclaimed any knowledge of such incident.
The report said the officers, when captured, said they were on their way to explore the ruins of the ancient Nabatean city of Petra in Jordan. They admitted they were in the country illegally, but insisted their purpose was innocent.
The timing of their trip, on Nov. 6, two days before the Arab summit conference opened in Amman, Jordan, has convinced the Jordanian counterintelligence agencies that the Israelis were on their way to plant intelligence-gathering devices, Al-Itihad reported.
Petra was built some 2,000 years ago, carved from the red rock walls of the eastern side of the Jordan rift, between the Dead Sea and the Gulf of Eilat. It has long been an attraction for Israeli hikers and archaeologists, a number of whom have been killed in attempts to visit the ruins.
In the early 1950s, the Israeli authorities banned a popular song, “The Red Rock,” which was thought to encourage adventurous Israeli youngsters to make the dangerous trip.
If two IDF officers did indeed hike to Petra, they may have been inspired by a recent Jordanian television documentary about the discovery of Petra by a British explorer in the 19th century.
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