By Hani Hazaimeh

AMMAN - The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Jordanian embassy in Lebanon are closely following up on the kidnapping of a Jordanian family with the Lebanese authorities at the highest level, a ministry official said on Monday.

“Minister of Foreign Affairs Salah Bashir discussed with his Lebanese counterpart the incident and both sides are exerting all efforts to arrest the perpetrators and free the abducted family,” Ambassador Ahmad Mubaidin, director of the Foreign Ministry Consular Department, told The Jordan Times.

A Jordanian mother and her three daughters, aged eight, five and three, were kidnapped on Thursday while they were in their private car waiting for the father who was late behind at the Beau Rivage Hotel where they were staying while spending the Eid Al Fitr holiday.

The father, Motaz Abu Hammoudeh, said over the phone from Beirut yesterday that he and the family “were preparing ourselves on Thursday morning to go sightseeing. My wife and three daughters went downstairs 10 minutes ahead of me, but when I got out of the hotel I didn’t find them or the car”.

He added that his white Peugeot 206 was parked in front of the hotel when an unknown person jumped in the driver seat while his family was in the car and quickly drove away. His wife does not drive, he said.

“I immediately called the security people, who were very cooperative and responsive and circulated my car’s description to their patrols,” Abu Hammoudeh said, ruling out completely that the incident could be linked to an act of terrorism since he has “no political affiliations”.

His suspicions hover around an anonymous man who kept on watching them for many hours while they were at the beach to watch the sunrise.

“He offered to host us in his house but we refused because we wanted to stay at the beach and watch the sunrise. He kept watching us from 4:00am till 8:00am,” Abu Hammoudeh told The Jordan Times, adding that at the time he did not suspect anything.

However, this could be irrelevant, Abu Hammoudeh said, but added this is the only thing that he can think of.

Abu Hammoudeh, who works at a private company in Amman, has not been contacted by the kidnapper(s) up until Monday noon and no one has claimed responsibility for the abduction.

Meanwhile, Mubaidin said the embassy’s staff in Lebanon cancelled their leaves in order to follow up on the case, adding that Ambassador Ziyad Majali met with Lebanese officials, who assured him that they are doing their best to locate and rescue the kidnapped family members.