“King Abdullah II’s May 29 appointment of Hani al-Mulqi, head of the Aqaba Special Economic Region Authority, to replace outgoing prime minister Abdullah Ensour comes at a turning point for Jordan. Though the office has limited inherent power -- especially since a set of constitutional amendments announced in April enhanced executive authority and, specifically, the power of the king -- it signals a shift toward a more technocratic government, even if not an independent one. These changes, which coincide with the king’s dissolution of parliament, should leave the next parliament with the unhappy role of forming the budget and managing an unpopular process of cutting fuel and electricity subsidies while Mulqi, with his technocratic experience, becomes the public face of a painful austerity program. These changes coincide with rhetoric about Jordan’s need for a ‘parliamentary government.’”
“A New Role for Jordan’s Government” (Kirk H. Sowell, Sada) “King Abdullah II’s May 29 appointment of Hani al-Mulqi, head of the Aqaba Special Economic Region Authority, to replace outgoing prime minister Abdullah Ensour comes at a turning point for Jordan. Though the office has limited inherent power -- especially since a set of constitutional amendments announced in April enhanced executive authority and, specifically, the power of the king -- it signals a shift toward a more technocratic government, even if not an independent one. These changes, which coincide with the king’s dissolution of parliament, should leave the next parliament with the unhappy role of forming the budget and managing an unpopular process of cutting fuel and electricity subsidies while Mulqi, with his technocratic experience, becomes the public face of a painful austerity program. These changes coincide with rhetoric about Jordan’s need for a ‘parliamentary government.’” Jordanian intelligence officials have stolen large quantities of weapons provided by the United States and Saudi Arabia for distribution to Syrian rebels and sold them on the black market, including the weapon used in an attack in November that killed two U.S. personnel in Amman, according to an FBI investigation reported by the New York Times and Al-Jazeera. Corrupt Jordanian spies ripped off the CIA's program to arm Syrian rebels, according to the New York Times, diverting weapons to local Jordanian tribes, smugglers, and Islamist militants after selling them on the black market. The weapons, primarily small arms, were later used in an attack by a Jordanian police captain which killed two Americans and three Jordanians. The scheme was carried out by logistics officers from Jordan's powerful General Intelligence Department and preyed on truckloads of weapons bought by the U.S. and Saudi Arabia from arms dealers in Eastern Europe to provide millions of dollars in profits. Jordan fired the spies involved in the illicit plan but allowed the men to keep their money and their pensions.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Archives
May 2024
Categories |