House raises cash aid for heirs of ‘PSD, CDD martyrs’ to JD10,000

AMMAN — The Lower House on Tuesday endorsed law amendments to increase immediate cash aid paid to the heirs of public security and civil defence department martyrs to JD10, 000.

During their deliberations of the 2015 amendments to the martyr fund laws of the two security agencies, MPs decided to raise the cash aid given to the successors of martyrs from the JD500 and JD2,000 set in the old laws and the government’s version respectively.

Lawmakers urged the government to speed up its amendment of the Jordan Armed Forces-Arab Army’s martyr fund law to increase the immediate cash aid to heirs of army martyrs as well.

The House also endorsed the new amendments to the Higher Education Accreditation Commission Law and the Patent Law.

Tuesday’s session began with some MPs asking the government about a number of issues. 

MP Amjad Majali (Unified Front list) asked about the authenticity of reports on a visit to Jordan by a delegation from the US Noble Energy which exports Israeli natural gas.

If the visit really took place, Majali called on the government to refrain from entering into negotiations that “serve the Israelis”.

Although Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour expressed the government’s readiness to answer the question, Majali’s request was turned down by Lower House Speaker Atef Tarawneh, who insisted on committing to the session’s agenda.

In 2015, the state-owned National Electric Power Company signed a letter of intent with Noble Energy, which owns 39 per cent of the Leviathan natural gas field in Israel, to buy gas over a period of 15 years at a total cost of $15 billion starting late 2017. 

Progress on the deal was halted after Israeli Antitrust Commissioner David Gilo said he was rescinding an agreement he had reached with Noble Energy and Delek Group in March 2015 that would have allowed the two companies to retain majority stakes in Israel’s two biggest gas fields, Tamar and Leviathan.

In December 2015, Energy Minister Ibrahim Saif told the Lower House that Jordan neither imports natural gas from Israel nor plans to do so.

Saif said, the issue of importing natural gas from Israel “was halted and the deal with the American company shelved”.

The minister added that the liquefied natural gas imported and stored at the terminal in Aqaba covers 85 per cent of electricity companies’ needs.