JERUSALEM, Feb 23: Israel’s army chief on Thursday ordered his high-ranking officers to show more restraint after two generals publicly speculated about lack of stability in neighbouring Egypt and Jordan.

One day after a general sounded off about threats to Jordan’s monarchy, army radio carried comments by deputy chief of staff General Moshe Kaplinski suggesting that the regime of Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak was showing first signs of destabilization.

“The uncertainty in Syria is obvious, but we are also seeing in Egypt different early signs, maybe, of the destabilization of (President Hosni) Mubarak’s solid regime,” Kaplinski said in comments also made on Wednesday.

Egypt’s ambassador in Tel Aviv, Mohammed Assem Ibrahim immediately expressed ‘astonishment at the declarations made by (Kaplinski) about which he refuses to comment’, a spokesman at the embassy told AFP.

Kaplinski’s remarks came on the heels of a diplomatic embroilment between Israel and Jordan sparked when General Yair Naveh suggested that Amman’s monarchy is in danger of being toppled.

Naveh’s comments brought a sharp rebuke from Jordan’s embassy in Tel Aviv, which demanded that he be reprimanded and warned that his comments could damage diplomatic relations if they went ‘uncorrected’.

Seeking to limit damage, Israeli chief of staff Dan Halutz on Thursday summoned all his senior officers and told them ‘to show great caution and sensitivity with everything linked to public statements’.

“Reckless declarations could be given erroneous interpretation and be taken out of context, which could drag the army into an unnecessary public debate over the army’s and the state of Israel’s policies,” Halutz told the officers.

Egypt and Jordan are Israel’s neighbours and the only two countries in the Middle East to have diplomatic relations with the Jewish state.

They are seen as key moderators in efforts, albeit presently stalled, to reach a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians.—AFP