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AMMAN — His Majesty King Abdullah, the Supreme Commander of the Jordan Armed Forces-Arab Army (JAF), on Sunday attended a ceremony at the Unknown Soldier Monument in the Jordan Valley, marking the 47th anniversary of the Karameh Battle. 

On March 21, 1968, Jordanian soldiers repelled an Israeli attack on a small town in the Jordan Valley, the name of which translates to “dignity”. 

Several Jordanian soldiers lost their lives in the battle and the raid was repelled with heavy losses for Israel as the military launched an artillery barrage against Israeli tanks.

Several Royal family members as well as Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour, and other senior officials and serving and retired officers attended Sunday’s ceremony in honour of those who sacrificed their lives for their homeland. 

The King reviewed the guard of honour, laid wreaths at the monument and recited verses from the Koran at the site.

Delivering an address during the ceremony, Mufti of the Armed Forces Yahia Btoush said Jordan will always remain strong with its men, heroes and martyrs, paying tribute to the fallen pilot Muath Kasasbeh, who was brutally killed by the Daesh terror group in January.

On the occasion, the King and HRH Crown Prince Hussein received cables of congratulations from senior officials and officers.

On Sunday, the Central Command of JAF decided to dispense JD200 to the families of fallen and wounded soldiers who fought in the Karameh battle.  

AMMAN — His Majesty King Abdullah, the Supreme Commander of the Jordan Armed Forces-Arab Army, on Sunday received a telephone call from Iraq’s Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi during which they discussed regional developments and anti-terror efforts. 

The King and Abadi reviewed the Iraqi government’s efforts in combating terrorist groups, besides ways to boost bilateral cooperation in various fields, a Royal Court statement said.  

Also on Sunday, King Abdullah received Ammar Hakim, leader of the Supreme Islamic Council of Iraq, at Al Husseiniya Palace, according to the Royal Court.

His Majesty stressed Jordan’s support for the Iraqis in fighting terrorism and terrorist groups to create a better present and future for Iraq and enable it to solidify its national unity.

They discussed the relations between the two countries, ways to enhance them and the developments in the region.

On his part, Hakim voiced his appreciation for His Majesty’s “numerous stands in supporting Iraq and its people, and his efforts to enhance stability and security in the Middle East”.

Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour met separately with Hakim and the accompanying delegation at the Prime Ministry to discuss bilateral relations and collaboration, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

Ensour highlighted the political situation and the growing extremism as obstacles in the face of economic projects between the two countries, including a railway, an oil pipeline, aviation and other strategic plans that contribute to boosting collaboration between the two sides, Petra reported.

Hakim stressed the necessity of establishing a comprehensive strategic partnership built on a roadmap and executive steps within a fixed timetable.

AMMAN — Fuel prices are expected to drop slightly in the domestic market as of April 1, Deputy Jamal Gammoh, head of the Lower House Energy and Mineral Resources Committee, said Thursday. 

The drop in prices of fuel products is expected to be between 4-6 per cent, Gammoh added.

Basing his expectations on the average price of Brent Crude Oil on the international market during February, the deputy told The Jordan Times over the phone that the average prices for crude oil ranged from $52 to $55.

“The prices of crude oil dropped slightly in February. We expect a drop in prices in Jordan but this drop will be slight,” Gammoh said.

Prices of main oil derivatives rose by around 12 per cent as of March 1.

Currently, one litre of unleaded 90-octane gasoline is being sold at JD0.585, while one litre of 95-octane costs JD0.740.

Both diesel and kerosene are sold at JD0.455 per litre, while the price of cooking gas remains unchanged at JD8 per cylinder.

The government lifted oil subsidies in November 2012 and a pricing committee meets monthly to adjust prices in a manner that corresponds to changes on the international market.

The committee — comprising representatives from the ministries of energy and finance, and the Jordan Petroleum Refinery Company — calculates the updates based on average international oil prices during the preceding 30 days and other costs such as freight and handling.

AMMAN — A total of 450 university students were found to be involved in drug-related cases last year, the Anti-Narcotics Department (AND) revealed on Sunday.

During a ceremony to launch the “No to drugs” campaign, implemented by the University of Jordan’s (UJ) nursing faculty and the department, First Lt. Nabil Rawashdeh from AND called on students to stay away from “bad company” to avoid falling into the habit.

He highlighted the dangers and types of addiction, in addition to legal ways to deal with them, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

On the sidelines of the event, a play showing the danger of drug addiction and its relation to HIV/AIDS was presented.

Campaign participants also received posters and pamphlets on the social and physical harms of addiction.

The “No to drugs” campaign includes lectures, plays and field visits for UJ students to the AND museum and the centre for rehabilitating drug addicts.

The draft drugs and psychotropic substances law stipulates a minimum fine of JD1,000 and a maximum of JD3,000 for first-time illegal narcotics users in addition to one to two years in prison.

The State Security Court (SSC), which handles such cases, has the option of substituting the penalty with a referral to a specialised rehabilitation centre or clinic based on a programme suggested by specialists.

AMMAN — After “excellent feedback” from the audience last year, Sheffield Film Days returns to Amman this week for the second time, organisers said Sunday.

In addition to the screening of five internationally acclaimed documentary features at the Royal Film Commission (RFC) every day at 7pm, the event will include a three-day workshop for “aspiring Jordanian filmmakers”, British Council Director Robin Rickard told reporters.

Up to 15 filmmakers will be participating in the workshop, which will train them on how to pitch their film projects to the Sheffield Documentary Festival (Doc/Fest), one of the world’s top documentary festivals, according to Abedalsalam Alhajj, training and community programme manager at the RFC.

Sheffield Doc/Fest Marketing Director Sylvia Wroblewska will be leading the training.

Five of these participants will head to the June festival in the UK, where they will be able to pitch their documentaries and network with top international producers and filmmakers, Rickard said.

A committee comprising representatives of the RFC and the British Council — which supports the film days — in addition to an independent filmmaking expert will select the five filmmakers.

“This is a great opportunity for Jordanian filmmakers,” Alhajj told The Jordan Times.

Rickard said the British Council is supporting the film days and the exchange visit within a memorandum of understanding it signed earlier this year with the RFC, under which it will continue to sponsor the film event until “at least 2017”.

The film days opened on Sunday evening with a screening of the award-winning US documentary, “Life Itself”, which examines the life of late film critic and Pulitzer Prize winner Roger Ebert.

On Monday, “The Internet’s Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz” will be screened.

The 105-minute documentary tells the story of “programming prodigy and information activist Aaron Swartz”, who helped develop the basic Internet protocol RSS and co-founded social media website Reddit, according to the film’s distributors, Participant Media and FilmBuff.

“A Dangerous Game”, on billionaire Donald Trump’s golf resort and the ecological cost of similar golf parks, is scheduled to be screened on Tuesday. 

Wednesday will feature “Stop at Nothing: The Lance Armstrong Story”, which tracks down some of the controversial cyclist’s “cohorts and sworn enemies who knew him at the peak of his success to uncover the biggest fraud in sport history”, according to the official booklet.

The film days conclude with “The Last Man on the Moon”, a biography of Eugene Cernan, “one of only three men who were sent twice to the moon, with his second trip being NASA’s final lunar mission”.

Selected by the RFC out of eight films suggested by Sheffield Doc/Fest, the line-up features “some of the most exciting” international documentaries, said Wroblewska.

The films were screened in June 2014 at the Sheffield Doc/Fest for either their international, European or UK premiere, she added, noting that the selected films have not been widely seen by audiences in Jordan.

RFC General Manager George David said the selection is based on the content and quality of the films, while Nada Doumani, RFC communications and culture manager, said the content should appeal to a Jordanian audience.

Copyright is also an issue, according to RFC Project Manager Shadi Al Nimri, who said that the RFC has to obtain the approval of a film’s copyright holders before screening it.

“Sometimes we are unable to obtain the approval and so we can’t screen certain films,” he noted.

Entry to Sheffield Film Days’ screenings is free.

AMMAN — The Ministry of Public Sector Development on Sunday said it had referred a report on unresolved complaints lodged against government entities in 2014 to Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour. 

In a statement e-mailed to The Jordan Times, Public Sector Development Minister Khleef Al Khawaldeh said the ministry prepared the report as part of its follow-up measures on public departments’ efforts to address complaints lodged against the quality of services.

Noting that 1,995 complaints were filed against 65 government agencies last year, Khawaldeh said 71 per cent of the complaints (1,414) were resolved, while 581 complaints, or 29 per cent of the total, remained unresolved.

The number of unresolved complaints is on the rise, particularly since the beginning of 2012, according to the minister, who added that the third quarter of 2014 witnessed the highest number of unaddressed complaints. 

He called on government agencies to address complaints against them, citing the reluctance of liaison officers to address flaws registered against their departments as the reason behind the increase in the number of such cases. 

The northern Governorate of Irbid had the highest number of unresolved complaints (130), according to the report, which attributed the figure to the Yarmouk Water Company’s lack of commitment to address complaints against its services. 

The report showed that 50 per cent of the unresolved complaints were recorded in Irbid, Zarqa and Amman, Khawaldeh said, adding that the majority of complaints were lodged against municipalities and water companies. 

The Health Ministry, he noted, holds the best ranking, having addressed all complaints registered against its services, while municipalities answered only 6 per cent.

The public can call the specialised unit that receives feedback on 06/5008080 to lodge complaints against government agencies, Khawaldeh said.

AMMAN — Winter ended this year with the country’s 10 major dams holding 65 per cent of their total capacity, the highest percentage recorded in a decade, according to official figures.

The 10 major dams now hold 211 million cubic metres (mcm) of their total capacity of 325mcm, Jordan Valley Authority (JVA) Secretary General Saad Abu Hammour told The Jordan Times.

“This is the highest storage recorded in years,” Abu Hammour said.

The spring solstice or vernal equinox occurred on Saturday, marking the beginning of spring and the end of winter in the northern hemisphere.

The spring solstice starts when the sun becomes vertical over the equator, which makes day and night of equal duration, meteorologist Laila Shaheen said on Sunday.

“The performance of the wet season was excellent. The majority of the governorates surpassed their long-term annual average of rainfall,” Shaheen told The Jordan Times.

The northern governorates received 99 per cent of their long-term annual average of rainfall; the western parts of the central region received 104 per cent; while the eastern parts of the central region received 119 per cent, she added.

The western parts of the southern region received 89 per cent and its southern areas received 114 per cent, while the eastern region received 101 per cent, according to official figures.

The Jordan Valley also received abundant rain, with its northern parts receiving 110 per cent, the central areas 108 per cent and the southern areas 134 per cent of their long-term annual average of rainfall.

“The end of winter doesn’t mean the end of the wet season because during spring, the country witnesses several spells of unstable weather and khamsini depressions which bring rain,” Shaheen underscored.

The name is derived from khamsin — meaning 50 in Arabic — because it usually occurs during a 50-day time frame, from March 21 through May 10. Khamsini weather conditions affect the eastern part of the Mediterranean an average of once a week during this period, according to the JMD.

The hot, sand-laden winds, originating from the Atlas Mountains in north Africa, annually move east of the Mediterranean Sea around this time of year and are usually preceded by unseasonably high temperatures and dry and dusty conditions.

Health experts advise the public to take precautionary measures during this period, as allergy cases and respiratory system infections increase, particularly due to pollen grains and dust.

AMMAN — Relations between Jordan and Pakistan have historically been very special in character and have grown in a climate of trust that both sides continue to value, according to Ahsan Azhar Hayat, the Pakistani ambassador to the Kingdom.

“These relations are characterised by a shared sense of history and perceptions on important regional and international issues. Pakistan and Jordan share pragmatism in approaches to international and regional situations, and their solution," Hayat told The Jordan Times in an interview on the occasion of his country's national day. 

"The imprint of this cooperative relationship transcends down to the social and cultural fields,” he added.

The people and governments of both countries have been very helpful to each other during times of need, the ambassador said, citing Jordan's relief assistance to Pakistan during the 2005 earthquake and floods of 2010 and 2011.

Similarly “in 2013, Pakistan also provided assistance to Jordan for dealing with the issues of hosting Syrian refugees.”

Noting that current trade volume between the two countries stands at around $62 million, Hayat said “there is a need to revitalise our economic and trade relations.”

The envoy explained that the potential is huge considering the fact that both countries are members of the G-11 group and are focusing all energies to further diversify and increase their export range.

G-11 is a forum of developing countries created to ease their debt burdens so that they can instead focus financial resources on increasing internal wealth development. 

The G-11 was formed in 2006 and the idea was originally conceived by His Majesty King Abdullah. The G-11 member countries are Jordan, Croatia, Ecuador, Salvador, Georgia, Honduras, Indonesia, Morocco, Pakistan, Paraguay and Sri Lanka.

Jordanian-Pakistani economic relations are governed by a joint ministerial commission, which was formed in 1975. 

The commission’s next meeting is scheduled for next month, according to Hayat.

The envoy said there are around seven Pakistani industrial units working in the Duleil free zone. 

Moreover, a few other Pakistani businessmen are bringing large investments to the Kingdom in the form of cement factories and a hospital. “We are also in process of signing MoUs [memoranda of understanding] in the field of investment and trade with the Jordan Investment Commission,” the ambassador added.

In the field of cultural and technical cooperation, both sides continue to support each other’s endeavours, he said.

Pakistan provides around 30-35 scholarships for Jordanian students annually, while Jordan offers nine scholarships for Pakistani students. 

A large number of Jordanians have graduated from Pakistani learning institutes since the 1970s and have formed the "Pakistan Graduates Club", Hayat said. 

Similarly, the "Pakistan-Jordan Friendship Association" was established in 2006 and its members are former generals or diplomats who have served in Pakistan as ambassadors and defence attaches. 

“Both organisations are playing a vital role in further strengthening our cultural ties by regularly holding functions and gatherings,” the envoy added, noting that every year many diplomats from Pakistan come to Jordan to learn Arabic.

The ambassador also touched on his country's role in its fight against terrorism.

“We are totally committed to eradicate this menace from Pakistan and have already lost more than 50,000 people in last decade alone because of it. However, our resolve is ever-the-more increased now that we have launched the third and final phase of our fight,” he said. 

“The biggest challenge in this kind of fight is that these terrorists are faceless people, unfortunately using the name of our beautiful religion Islam to serve their goals. This challenge has to be tackled by not only Pakistan or this region but by [the] Muslim Ummah [nation] as a whole.”

“Defence relations have remained a hallmark of our relations,” Hayat said, adding that Pakistani and Jordanian government officials not only attend courses in each other's countries but also participate in joint exercises and serve on assignments for one to two years.

Pakistan also purchases defence equipment from Jordan, according to the diplomat.

In addition to a number of Pakistani businessmen and persons serving in multinational organisations, an estimated Pakistani farming community of 10,000 lives in the Jordan Valley, according to Hayat. 

“They came in the 1960s as a result of Jordan's decision to upgrade its agriculture in the East Bank and since then have been instrumental in developing the agricultural sector of Jordan,” he said.

AMMAN — Lower House Speaker Atef Tarawneh on Sunday announced that the lawsuit filed against MP Tarek Khoury has been dropped but requested an apology from the Zarqa deputy.

The State Security Court had requested that the parliamentary immunity of Khoury be lifted so that it could proceed with a lawsuit a citizen had filed against him.

In the lawsuit, Khoury was accused of insulting Jordanians in tweets he wrote following His Majesty King Abdullah’s televised address to the nation. 

The Zarqa MP used the slogan raised by the King, “Be proud,” as a hashtag in Arabic and commented on several controversial issues related to the country’s dealings with Israel.

Along with other MPs, the House Legal Committee had recommended that his parliamentary immunity be lifted to enable the judiciary to proceed with the legal procedures against him.

Khoury gave an apology during the session, saying that his tweets were aimed at the government and not the King. He also said he has never ever criticised the Monarch, claiming that he is the target of an "organised campaign".

Also during the session, Tarawneh said he "forgives" Deputy Motaz Abu Rumman, thus averting disciplinary action previously recommended against the MP.

Last week, a joint parliamentary committee recommended that Abu Rumman (Shabab Al Wifaq list) be banned from attending three consecutive sessions as disciplinary action for insulting Tarawneh. 

During last Tuesday’s session, the deputy faulted Tarawneh for asking him to give brief comments at the meeting. 

Abu Rumman protested that the speaker had allowed other MPs to speak longer and claimed Tarawneh was bullying him while being lenient with other deputies, using an Arabic proverb that translates into: “A lion on me and an ostrich in war".

The MP apologised to Tarawneh, saying that he did not mean to insult him and that his remarks were "taken out of context".

AMMAN — The Muslim Brotherhood old guard on Sunday accused the newly licensed group, that holds the same name, of leading a coup targeting the movement’s legitimacy.

In a statement sent to The Jordan Times and signed by Nawaf Obeidat, president of the shura council, the old guard accused Abdul Majeed Thneibat, the overall leader of the newly established Brotherhood association, and his group of targeting the legitimacy and existence of the movement with “the support of official government bodies”.

Although the original Muslim Brotherhood, led by Hammam Saeed, has made this statement many times, this is the first time the shura council, the movement's highest decision-making body, has issued an official statement with these accusations.

The crisis of the Muslim Brotherhood started after authorities approved a re-registration application filed by the "reformist wing" of the Kingdom's largest opposition group.

The move was led by Thneibat, who sought and succeeded in separating the Jordanian branch of the Brotherhood from its Egypt mother group after decades of presence in that capacity.

Responding to accusations by the old guard, Thneibat told The Jordan Times that the law is the arbiter in this case and “we are the legal group now.”

“If they accuse us of being illegitimate for following the country’s laws, let them say it,” Thneibat added.

The Muslim Brotherhood-Jordan was licensed in 1946 as a charity affiliated with the mother group in Egypt and re-licensed in 1953 as an Islamic society.