Amman - The Jordanian authorities have refused to license a rally organized by the Islamic Action Front for Friday to mark the 60th anniversary of Nakba (Day of the Catastrophe) in Palestine, the Arab version for Israel's foundation in 1948, the IAF said Wednesday.

"We are astonished over this decision by the governor of Amman to prevent such a rally at a time when conspiracies mount on the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes," IAF spokesman Hikmat Rawashdeh said.

Rawashdeh, who is in charge of the Palestinian file at the IAF Executive Bureau, said his party planned to hold the rally under the title "In Defence of Jordan and for Protection of the Right of Return".

Jordan is home to about 1.8 million Palestinian refugees who are entitled under the UN General Assembly Resolution 194 of 1948 to return to their homes which Islamists say they were forced to leave by Israeli forces.

"The refusal to license the rally serves the enemy and does not help the quest of confronting the dangers of the settlement" of Palestinian refugees in Jordan and other Arab countries, Rawashdeh said.

He chided the Jordanian government for preventing this rally "at a time when it allows the Israeli embassy to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the usurpation of Palestine".

The Jordanian government concluded a peace treaty with Israel in 1994, but the IAF and other opposition parties as well as 14 trade unions still reject the pact and any steps to normalize ties with the Jewish state. (dpa)