Israel says addressing Jordan concerns on new airport near border
Israel is in talks to resolve Jordan's misgivings about potential safety risks posed by the construction of a new Israeli airport near their border, the Israeli transport minister said on Thursday.
Slated to open by the end of 2016, the airport at Timna, outside the Israeli resort of Eilat, will be some 10 km (6 miles) northwest of King Hussein International Airport serving Aqaba - the Jordanian port facing Eilat across the Red Sea gulf. Worried that the proximity could spell dangerous disruptions to its air corridors, Amman said in June it had complained to the U.N. International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO). "We are managing this," Transport Minister Yisrael Katz said when asked about the dispute with Jordan, one of two Arab countries to have full relations with Israel. "The Jordanians are displaying sensitivity on the matter," Katz told Israel Radio.
