Local

AMMAN — Secretary General of Foreign Ministry Zaid Lozi on Sunday received a copy of credentials for the new Japanese Ambassador to Jordan Hidenao Yanagi, as an accredited and resident ambassador to the Kingdom, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

The two officials reviewed bilateral ties and voiced their keenness on developing them.  

AMMAN — A two-day conference on Alcoholics Anonymous titled Carrying a Message began on Sunday, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported. 

The event was organised by Forearms of Change Centre To Enable Community in cooperation with the Alcoholics Anonymous fellowship and Drug Addicts Anonymous.

The conference aims at reviewing the personal experiences of quitting alcohol and drugs for a long period of time. The conference sees the participation of experts from France, the US, Australia, Kuwait, Bahrain and Egypt, as well as Jordan.

Anti-Narcotics Department Director Brig. Gen. Anwar Tarawneh said that the department is engaged with civil society organisations to support all efforts to prevent youth from drug addiction.

AMMAN — Police are investigating a case in which three suspects have allegedly lured victims through a “pornographic” social media account and ended up stealing their belongings.

A statement by the Public Security Department  said Sunday that detectives at Ruseifah’s criminal investigation department (CID) acted on a tip-off that the suspects allegedly impersonated women and set appointments with the victims before they robbed them of their money, mobile phones and other belongings.

The CID agents identified the three and arrested them. During interrogation, the men reportedly confessed to committing the crime six times. The police statement urged people to be cautious while using social media, and especially websites that promote unethical materials. 

AMMAN — The Cabinet on Monday agreed to train 500 fresh engineering graduates at municipalities under an agreement between the Ministry of Municipals Affairs and the Jordan Engineers Association, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

The trainees, half of them females, will be mainly from underprivileged areas. The training is aimed at providing job opportunities and to lower unemployment rates among engineers.

Earlier this year, the association and the ministry signed an agreement to train around 300 engineers in municipalities across the Kingdom and remote areas.

AMMAN — The Cabinet has decided to raise the borrowing limit of the Agricultural Credit Cooperation from the Central Bank of Jordan by JD10 million to reach JD60 million, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

The decision came as part of implementing His Majesty King Abdullah’s vision and the government’s plans to support the agricultural sector. 

AMMAN — The Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association (AFCEA) branch in Jordan on Sunday announced that it will hold its annual international conference, “the first of its kind” in Jordan and the region, between December 11 and 13. HRH Prince Feisal, honourary president of the association, will attend the conference titled “Secure the Future with Cyber Protection”, according to an AFCEA statement.

AFCEA’s executive director in Jordan, Rula Amouri, said that some 300 local, Arab and international specialists in the ICT sector are scheduled to participate in the meeting that will address electronic security needs and challenges, electronic intelligence and means to develop the sector.

Amouri said that the event will also include workshops on the importance of information safety in various sectors.

AMMAN — His Majesty King Abdullah on Saturday met with the presidents of a number of African countries and representatives of nations participating in the two-day Aqaba Meetings to discuss the global efforts to fight terrorism and extremist ideologies, especially in West Africa.

On the sidelines of the Aqaba Meetings, King Abdullah met with President of Nigeria Muhammadu Buhari, President of Guinea Alpha Condé, President of Niger Mahamadou Issoufou, and President of Mali Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta, a Royal Court statement said.

His Majesty also held meetings with US Secreary of Defence Jim Mattis, Brazilian Minister of Defence Raul Jungmann, French Minister of State attached to the Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne, UK Minister of State for the Armed Forces Mark Lancaster, and High Representative of the African Union Pierre Buyoya.

The Aqaba Meetings were launched by the King to maintain international and regional coordination and cooperation in the fight against terrorism within a holistic approach, and to discuss security challenges in regions around the world that are dealing with terrorism hotspots, with the aim of identifying shortcomings and coordinating efforts to fight terrorism.

 The meetings are part of His Majesty’s initiative to reach out to countries around the world and coordinate with them on this issue, since the anti-terrorism fight “must be a joint, international effort, based on close coordination and consultations, to counter the global threats of terrorism and extremism”, the statement said. 

Held with the aim of exchanging expertise and information — as well as to bolstering security and military cooperation in the fight against terrorism — the latest Aqaba Meetings feature the participation of presidents of West African countries, as well as ministers from the US, the UK and France.

Senior political and security officials from European, Latin American, and African countries, and representatives from the UN, the EU, NATO, and the African Union are also attending.

The participants also include other senior officials from the UK, France, Germany, Spain, Romania, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, Cyprus, Canada, Brazil, Japan, Australia, India, Indonesia, Côte d’Ivoire, Gambia, Nigeria, Mauritania, Antigua and Barbuda, Mali, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Chad, and Burkina Faso, in addition to representatives of regional and international organisations.

Over the past two years, the Aqaba Meetings featured similar discussions held by the King with heads and representatives of a number of countries in East Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Balkans.

 AMMAN — A Jordanian economic delegation on Saturday began a tour to a number of African countries to explore the available opportunities for Jordanian exports to those countries, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported. 

The tour also aims to promote the investment and trade opportunities available in the Kingdom. 

The visit, which was organised by the Jordan Investment Commission and Jordan Chamber of Industry, will include Tanzania, Kenya, and Ethiopia, where the delegation is scheduled to attend business forums and hold meetings with officials and organise meetings for Jordanian companies to sign memoranda of understanding with the private sector leaders in these countries, according to Petra. 

Emerging African markets have become a target for Jordanian exporters after regional turbulence has led to the closure of vital markets in the neighbourhood.

AMMAN — HRH Prince Hassan has delivered a lecture at the Woolf Institute in the United Kingdom proposing ways in which Palestine, Israel and Jordan could move from a culture of war to a culture of peace, according to a statement. 

The lecture, titled “A positive future? The aftermath of conflict” was chaired by Lord Ian Blair and included responses from Lord Rowan Williams and Ed Kessler MBE, the founder director of the Woolf Institute, the statement from the Prince’s  office said on Saturday. 

Prince Hassan, who has over 40 years of experience working with dialogue, cooperation and peace relations within Jordan and the Levant, spoke about the importance of pursuing a vision of a world beyond discrimination, prejudice, intolerance or oppression of any kind, the statement said.

Moving on to the present, he mentioned that it was in the Jordanian interests to support Palestinian reconciliation as fundamental to building regional stability. “The engagement of Jordan in any hope of achieving the internationally recognised solution of a Palestinian state on Palestinian soil thus is now necessary, and equally urgent,” he stated.

Yet, he emphasised, there is a gulf between the “aftermath of conflict” and the achievement of a warm peace, as he said after the signing of the peace treaty between Jordan and Israel in 1994. “Unless this becomes a warm peace, a people’s peace, it will not last,” the prince said.

Post conflict resolution and reconciliation can not be achieved through a quick fix, but is rather a “long, slow, gruelling process of rehabilitation; of truth and reconciliation”, he noted, adding that people need to relearn how to live with each other.

 “No single country in the Levant can solve its problems on its own. We have to work together to manage our regional commons,” the prince highlighted.

The prince stressed that in order to really change anything, “we have to transcend the noise of politics… to think creatively, to rediscover an inclusive narrative to manage post twentieth century politics and to believe in its possibility… But if economic and political changes are made without reference to human culture — and especially the fostering of human dignity and self-worth for all human beings, then they can not succeed in improving people’s lives and they lose credibility.”

He called on all faith leaders to exercise their responsibility “towards a renaissance of our collective humanity, for the human experience is what the faith communities have in common, whereas the divine is diversely understood”.

Edward Kessler MBE said that “Prince Hassan talked about something absolutely central to our future and to living peaceably together: trust.” 

“At the Woolf Institute, with nearly 20 years’ experience in fostering better relations between religion and society through education, we have learnt that the biggest single contributor to poor relationships alongside a lack of knowledge is a lack of trust,” he argued.

For his part, Rowan Williams, master of Magdalene College noted that: “This is an exceptionally timely moment for a message like this stressing that real peace has to be built up from the longings of ordinary people and so must rest upon the long job of creating deeper trust.”

AMMAN — The Jordan Atomic Energy Commission (JAEC) and the US X-Energy signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to evaluate X-Energy's advanced nuclear reactor the Xe-100 and its possibility for implementing it in Jordan, according to a statement by JAEC. 

JAEC Chairman Khaled Toukan said in a press statement on Saturday that this type of reactor is important to Jordan because of the multiple uses it offers such as generating electricity, desalination, as well as other industrial applications. He added that this type of advanced reactors represent a link between the third and fourth generation reactors, stressing the importance of the memorandum of understanding as part of Jordan's efforts to search for options within its peaceful nuclear programme.

Vice Chairman of the JAEC Kamal Araj said the MoU follows studies conducted by the commission on a group of small reactors to choose the most technically appropriate for Jordan. He said the reactor in question requires a small amount of water to be cooled, relying on gas for the  cooling process. 

X- Energy's CEO Kam Ghaffarian praised Jordan's interest in this type of advanced reactors that generate electricity, desalinate water and has other thermal applications. He pointed out that these reactors will benefit Jordan and the countries that seek to generate energy from clean sources. He added that the MoU is a demonstration of X-Energy's commitment to providing clean energy solutions to countries like Jordan.