After Friday prayers April 14, Jordanians gathered in the northern city of Mafraq burning Iranian flags and pictures of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei while demanding the expulsion of Iran’s ambassador from the Hashemite Kingdom.

The demonstrations came in response to a war of words between senior Jordanian and Iranian officials. In a wide-ranging interview with The Washington Post on April 6, King Abdullah II addressed the challenge of growing Israeli settlement construction while trying to fight terrorism. He warned, “These issues give ammunition to the Iranians, to [Islamic State leader Abu Bakr] al-Baghdadi and ISIS [Islamic State].”

The remarks of Jordan's monarch stunned many in Tehran because he seemed to equate the Iranian government with IS. The response from Iran was swift, with Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Ghassemi blasting Abdullah’s comments as “silly and careless,” reflecting his “ignorance and superficial” view. Jordan’s Foreign Ministry promptly summoned the Iranian ambassador in Amman, Mojtaba Ferdosipour, rebuking the Iranian envoy for his country’s verbal assault. Ghassemi’s words stung as Jordanians expect that those who oppose the country’s policies will criticize the government, not taunt the king himself, which is considered a red line in the Hashemite Kingdom.

Beyond the rhetorical insults, the latest spat between Amman and Tehran reflects a genuine policy divide that is unlikely to disappear in the short term. Abdullah warned in the Post interview about Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps forces operating only 70 kilometers (43 miles) from Jordan's borders, adding that non-state actors approaching Jordan will not be “tolerated.”