Israel arrests Jordanian MP on suspicion of smuggling weapons and guns

Israel has arrested a Jordanian MP on suspicion of weapons and gold smuggling, Jordan's foreign ministry said on Sunday.

Imad al-Adwan, a parliamentarian from the city of Salt, was arrested on Sunday evening while trying to cross the Allenby Bridge from Jordan into the occupied West Bank, according to Ammon News.

According to the Jordanian news site, Adwan, a lawyer and member of the Palestine Committee in the Jordanian parliament, was found to have gold and weapons in his car when security services examined it.

The search was not initially scheduled to be carried out but was done so following information obtained by the Israeli authorities, the report said.

"The ministry, in coordination with all concerned authorities, is following up [on] the case of Representative Imad al-Adwan, who was arrested by the Israeli authorities for interrogation over alleged smuggling of quantities of weapons and gold," the Jordanian foreign ministry tweeted.

Ammon News said a video posted on Hebrew social media purportedly of the developments showed the contents of three bags said to contain 100kg of gold, 12 machine guns and 270 medium- and small-sized weapons.

MP Khalil Ateyya called on the Jordanian government to secure Adwan's release and said he would hold the government responsible for any failure to do so.