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No changes to budget assumptions despite oil price drop — minister

By Khetam Malkawi - Dec 20,2014 - Last updated at Dec 20,2014

AMMAN — Despite the current slide in oil prices, the government will keep the draft state budget law based on global oil prices averaging $100 a barrel, a senior official said Saturday.

Minister of State for Media Affairs and Communications Mohammad Momani said the government cannot change the assumptions in the state budget as the price of the oil might go up again during next year.

The recent slide in prices to less than $60 a barrel, a five-year low, prompted the Lower House Finance Committee to stop deliberating the bill asking the government to revise its assumptions based on the price of $80 a barrel.

Speaking at Al Rai Centre for Strategic Studies on several issues related to the political and economic reforms and other emerging issues, Momani said there are no new developments on the gas import agreement with Israel after exchanging “letters of intent” with Noble Energy, the US-based company handling the Israeli gas.

However, he noted that the government is working on parallel plans to address the energy issue, including the nuclear reactor, shale oil and the liquefied gas terminal.

As for political reform in the country, Momani outlined progress in four main pieces of legislation that constitute a legislative package designed to achieve political reform’s end goal. He said the new version of the Political Parties Law has already been drafted and referred to Parliament for endorsement, and the municipalities and decentralisation bills have also been drafted by the government, while the new elections law will be ready in “due time”.

The minister explained that the Political Parties Law is the first step towards having in place “mature parties” in preparation for the parliamentary government stage. The municipalities and decentralisation laws, he said, are prone to expand public participation in politics.

Although the minister said that the government has a clear vision for the new draft elections law, he declined to comment on the details, reiterating that it will end the one-man, one-vote system.

Momani also briefed his audience on the outcomes of Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour’s Thursday visit to Iraq, noting that the premier and his team carried a “political message” of support for Iraq’s unity as both countries work to combat extremism and terrorist groups.

He noted that although Jordan will not be part of any ground attacks against the Islamic State, the country will not hesitate to provide training for Iraqis.

The minister, however, noted that air strikes against this group dropped recently and there will be more “ground attacks” that will involve the Kurdish army “peshmerga”, Iraqi army and the moderate Syrian opposition.

Asked about the arrest of Zaki Bani Rsheid, the Muslim Brotherhood’s deputy overall leader, Momani reiterated that he was not detained for his political views and he is not a “political detainee”.

The minister noted that Bani Rsheid has been criticising the Jordanian government for the past two years and he was not imprisoned as the government considered that freedom of speech, but now the issue is different as he was harming Jordan’s relations with a foreign country, in violation of the Anti-Terrorism Law.

In comments he made on Facebook, the group leader criticised the UAE for listing the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist group.

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