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AMMAN — The International Quartet for Middle East Peace is committed to maintaining coordination and contact with Jordan, its representative, Tony Blair, said Wednesday.

At a meeting with Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh, Blair said the Quartet appreciates the Kingdom’s efforts in achieving peace and stability in the region.

Judeh reiterated that Jordan views the establishment of a Palestinian state on the pre-1967 border with East Jerusalem as its capital as one of its higher interests as it is the case for Palestine.

The Kingdom is concerned with all final status issues in the peace process because they are all related to vital Jordanian interests, the minister stressed.

Judeh and Blair reviewed the results of US Secretary of State John Kerry’s visit to the region in an effort to push Palestinian-Israeli peace talks forward.

They discussed the outcome of his meetings with the Palestinian and Israeli sides and his talks with His Majesty King Abdullah.

Judeh reaffirmed Jordan’s support for all efforts to advance the peace talks.

The two officials agreed on the importance of working to ensure the success of these negotiations, highlighting the role of the Quartet in this regard.

AMMAN — Jordan deems protecting its higher strategic interests a top priority, especially those pertaining to final status issues between Israel and Palestine, His Majesty King Abdullah said on Wednesday.

During a meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Amman, the King said Jordan supports the Palestinians’ legitimate right to establish an independent and viable state on the 1967 border with East Jerusalem as its capital in accordance with the related international resolutions, the two-state solution and the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative.

His Majesty stressed the need to safeguard the rights and interests of the Palestinian people in the ongoing peace negotiations with Israel brokered by the US.

Abbas briefed King Abdullah on the course of the peace talks and the meetings with US Secretary of State John Kerry.

The meeting is part of the two leaderships’ coordination efforts, particularly during this “delicate” stage when the Palestinians and Israelis are developing a negotiating framework with the support of the US, according to a Royal Court statement.

For his part, the Palestinian president voiced his commitment to continuing coordination with Jordan and acquainting it with the latest developments in the negotiations.

Abbas commended King Abdullah’s efforts to urge the international community and stakeholders to support reaching a comprehensive and just solution for the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

In a statement following the meeting, Abbas said his meetings with the Monarch would continue as usual, particularly in light of Kerry’s visits to the region.

“We are exchanging opinions with His Majesty about ideas presented to us in order to unify the Jordanian and Palestinian stances…,” he noted.

Also on Wednesday, Palestinian and Jordanian lawmakers expressed their rejection of any transitional, partial or temporary agreements that harm the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, especially the refugees’ right of return.

AMMAN — Development partners from 18 countries and the EU on Wednesday agreed that the January 15 Kuwait II Pledging Conference for Syria should encompass support for critical development efforts to complement the humanitarian response to the crisis in Syria and its spill-over impacts on neighbouring countries, according to a UNDP statement.

The meeting in Amman, which brought together "partners with long-standing experience and knowledge of the region, and UNDP country directors from Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Turkey, endorsed UNDP’s Development Response in support of people and communities affected by the Syrian crisis in those five countries".

The conflict in Syria has rolled back human development achievements by 35 years, leaving more than 50 per cent of the population (12.6 million people) living in poverty, 9.3 million in need of humanitarian and development assistance and 6.5 million displaced from their homes, the statement said.

It has also forced 2.3 million people to flee Syria into neighbouring countries, where 80 per cent live amidst host communities, severely impacting municipal and social services, such as health, education, sanitation, housing and socio-economic infrastructure.

The resilience-based development approach supports communities in Syria and neighbouring countries to cope with immediate needs emanating from the crisis, to recover from its impacts and to sustain recovery and build stability over the longer term, according to the UNDP. It preserves development gains and supports social cohesion, which is necessary to prevent conflict and achieve stabilisation within countries.

“The approach we are taking fosters greater coherence across the humanitarian and development dimensions of the response to the crisis,” UNDP Administrator Helen Clark in her address at the meeting.

“It enables the scaling up of investments and national development process at this very critical time,” she added.

The resilience-based development approach recognises the innate capacities and resourcefulness of people and communities. It focuses on sustainability, reducing likelihood of future conflict and empowering affected people, communities and institutions to emerge stronger from the crisis than before, the statement said.

UNDP country directors presented concrete examples of a resilience-based response already under way as part of their programmes, such as availing emergency employment and capacity building for micro, small and medium enterprise growth in Jordan.

At the Kuwait conference, UNDP is appealing for funding for its sub-regional resilience-based development programming in the order of $166 million with allocations of $45 million in Syria, $56 million in Lebanon, $32 million in Jordan, $11 million in Iraq and $23 million in Turkey, the statement said.

AMMAN — The government will announce the international companies that qualify to finance and implement the first phase of the Red Sea-Dead Sea Water Conveyance Project in the course of this year, a senior official said on Tuesday.

The government will cooperate with the World Bank to secure part of the project’s cost, while the rest will be paid by the selected private companies, which will implement the scheme on a build-operate-transfer formula, Minister of Water and Irrigation Hazem Nasser said.

The Red-Dead project, the first phase of which will cost $900 million, seeks to provide Jordan with its water needs at reasonable prices, while at the same time prevent further shrinking of the Dead Sea.

Under the scheme, 70-80 million cubic metres (mcm) of water from the Red Sea will be desalinated annually at a desalination plant to be built north of Aqaba, Jordan’s only seaport.

“A total of 30mcm will be channelled to Aqaba to stop providing the city with water from the Disi Water Conveyance Project… while 100mcm of brine generated from the desalination process will be dumped in the Dead Sea to stop it from dwindling,” Nasser told reporters at a press conference.

Jordan signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Israel and Palestine in December last year to implement the first phase of the Red-Dead project. Under the MoU, Palestine will receive 30mcm of freshwater to cover its water deficit, while Israel will buy its share of 50mcm of desalinated water from the project at cost value and sell Jordan the same amount of water in the northern part of the Jordan Valley at a cost of JD0.27 per cubic metre.

“The water which Jordan will receive from Israel is the same water it has been receiving since 1994. It will come from Lake Tiberius and its quality will be better than water from the Jordan River or the King Abdullah Canal,” Nasser told The Jordan Times.

He reiterated that the project is a purely Jordanian scheme, which will be built on Jordanian soil and run by the government of Jordan.

AMMAN — The Lower House is scheduled to start debating the draft 2014 state budget next week, after its Financial and Economic Committee completed deliberations and sent its recommendations to the MPs.

After holding 60 meetings with different government entities over the past few weeks, the House panel concluded its report on the bill, submitting 25 recommendations to the government for examination during the upcoming discussions under the Dome.

The committee recommended that the government draft a deficit law to cover the next five years, starting from 2015 to reach self-sufficiency by 2020.

The panel urged the government to speed up its efforts to collect Treasury funds — estimated at JD2 billion — and conclude all lawsuits against tax evaders and others who owe money to the state, expected to generate JD1 billion, calling on the authorities to aggressively combat tax evasion.

The government should also accelerate the implementation of alternative energy projects, according to the panel’s recommendations, which were made available to The Jordan Times.

The government submitted the draft budget to the Lower House in November 2013, with a 12.8 per cent expansion in spending and a deficit of around JD1.1 billion.

Public spending for 2014, according to main outlines of the draft budget law that was endorsed by the Cabinet, is estimated to reach JD8.096 billion, up by JD920 million over public expenditure re-estimated for 2013.

Public revenues before foreign assistance were estimated at JD5.831 billion, an 11.6 per cent increase compared with the JD5.226 billion estimated for 2013.

Overall public revenues, including foreign grants, are estimated to reach JD6.982 billion.

Budget planners project assistance from donor countries to increase by JD169 million or 17.3 per cent next year, from JD982 million re-estimated for 2013, to amount to JD1.151 billion.

As the re-estimated deficit for 2013 stands at JD968 million, it means that the projected financial gap in next year’s budget is expected to rise by nearly 15 per cent.

Analysts have criticised the government for what they described as the “unjustified expansion” in the state budget draft law for 2014, saying that the Finance Ministry should have prepared a tightened spending bill to reduce the deficit and control the growing public debt.

Also next week, the MPs will debate the draft law for the 2014 budget of independent government institutions.

AMMAN — Jordan is scheduled to sign a memorandum of understanding this month with a Chinese company for the exploration and utilisation of oil shale as part of the country’s efforts to increase dependence on local energy resources.

The Natural Resources Authority (NRA) has received the Cabinet’s approval to sign the memo with China’s Fushun Mining Group Co. Ltd., NRA Director General Mousa Zyoud told The Jordan Times on Tuesday.

Under the memo, the Chinese firm will conduct geological and geophysical studies over an 87-square-kilometre area in Wadi Al Naadiyeh in the central region, Zyoud said.

“The company will also assess the available quantities of oil shale during the study period, which will last for two years,” he added.

“If the studies prove that quantities are feasible, we will start negotiations with the company to prepare for signing a commercial agreement,” Zyoud said.

The memo is part of the government’s strategy to increase the contribution of oil shale to the energy mix to 14 per cent by 2020, according to Zyoud.

Jordan, which imports about 96 per cent of its energy needs annually, has about 40 billion tonnes of oil shale reserves, the fourth largest in the world, according to the NRA.

AMMAN –– Nearly two-thirds of the olive groves in northern Ajloun Governorate incurred damage during a snowstorm dubbed “Alexa” that hit the Kingdom last month, Agriculture Minister Akef Zu’bi said on Tuesday.

Around 60 per cent of the farms planted with olive trees were severely damaged by the blizzard, the minister said at a press conference, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

According to the National Centre for Agricultural Research and Extension, there are over 17 million olive trees in the country, nearly half of which are in the northern region.

Jordan is the world’s eighth largest producer of olive oil, exporting its product to several countries including Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the US.

The average per capita consumption of olive oil in Jordan stands at about 3.43 kilogrammes per year, and the country’s overall annual consumption stands at about 21,773 tonnes, according to official figures.

Meanwhile, Zu’bi said the ministry is mulling exporting agricultural products, fruits and vegetables to the Russian market, which he said equals the Eastern Europe market in terms of size.

“The Russian market would be an important venue for our national exports,” he said, indicating that officials from both sides have agreed to facilitate bilateral trade, Petra reported.

Jordanian exports of fruits and vegetables have seen a series of setbacks in recent years, mainly due to the instability in neighbouring Syria and Iraq.

Syria used to import over 30 per cent of the Kingdom’s produce.

Zu’bi noted that he recently visited the Jordan Customs Department to discuss technical issues related to exporting produce to Russia.

Asked about restrictions imposed on imports of certain agricultural products, he explained that the government takes two conditions into consideration for permitted imports: the products should meet public health standards and national production should not be negatively affected.

Zu’bi told reporters that the government has recently decided to increase the annual financial allocation of the Agriculture Credit Fund from JD10 million to JD60 million in a bid to boost the sector.

Loan limits to farmers will go up from JD10,000 to JD15,000 he said.

AMMAN — The country’s water sector needs $750 million during the next three years to meet the rising demand for water, aggravated by an ongoing influx of Syrian refugees, a senior government official said on Tuesday.

The Ministry of Water and Irrigation has formulated a “support plan” that proposes new water infrastructure projects to be implemented in case Syrians continue to take refuge in the Kingdom over the next few years, Water Minister Hazem Nasser told reporters at a press conference.

“The ministry has submitted its ‘support plan’ to international aid institutions to seek funding… if the funds are insufficient, the ministry will be forced to reduce its role and presence,” Nasser said, referring to water services provided to the refugees.

The minister highlighted that Syrian refugees’ direct and indirect cost on the water sector is estimated at $358 million per year.

“Water demand rose by 20 per cent due to hosting hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees… we are operating the Disi Water Conveyance Project at 92 per cent of its capacity, which is a figure we planned to reach in three to four years,” he noted.

Nasser underscored that hosting thousands of Syrian refugees “ruined” the ministry’s strategies and plans, which were replaced by “emergency plans” formulated every summer.

During the past year, the water sector received $107 million in grants to sustain services in communities hosting Syrian refugees, particularly in the northern region, Nasser said.

The minister on Tuesday signed agreements worth 10 million euros for implementing water development projects in the northern governorates, where water resources are scarce.

Under the agreements, funded by the German Development Bank, new water wells will be drilled and existing ones will be rehabilitated in the northern and northeastern badia, according to Nasser.

In addition, the authorities will extend pipelines, conveyors and wastewater networks and purchase pump equipment.

The northern region suffers from an acute water shortage caused by limited resources, violations to main water lines and deteriorating networks, while the situation has worsened with the influx of Syrian refugees, according to ministry officials.

Over 70 per cent of the Syrian refugees in Jordan live amongst host communities, while the rest are accommodated at the Zaatari Refugee Camp in Mafraq Governorate and the Mreijeb Al Fhoud Camp in Zarqa Governorate.

AMMAN — The Jordan Food and Drug Administration (JFDA) conducted 1,461 inspections on food establishments last month, during which 33 food outlets were shut down, according to a JFDA statement issued on Tuesday.

The JFDA said warnings were issued to 657 other food outlets across the Kingdom in December 2013.

Most of the closures and violations were in restaurants in Irbid, 80km north of Amman, while Zarqa, 22km east of Amman, witnessed the lowest number of violations, the JFDA said, without elaborating on the number of violations in each city.

In addition, the JFDA destroyed more than 219.2 tonnes of food items, which were found unsuitable for human consumption, and seized 350 tonnes of imported foodstuff that will either be destroyed or sent back to the countries of origin.

The JFDA also conducted 220 inspection visits to pharmacies last month that led to the closure of seven, while five were referred to court and eight received warnings.

Moreover, it refused the entry of various types of donated medicine worth JD19 million because of issues related to their expiry date, according to the statement.