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AMMAN — Fifty Syrians entered the Kingdom over the past 24 hours and were transferred to shelters and camps, an army source said on Tuesday. 

Royal Medical Services personnel provided healthcare and medications to the ill and wounded, according to the Jordan News Agency, Petra.

AMMAN — Labour Minister Nidal Katamine on Tuesday said around 220,000 Syrians entered regulated and non-regulated sectors of Jordan’s labour market as a result of the Syrian crisis. 

He made the remark in a lecture at the Royal Jordanian Command and Staff College, during which he outlined the ministry's policy to mitigate the adverse impact of unemployment on Jordanians. 

Katamine noted that consecutive waves of migration into the Kingdom from neighbouring countries, most recently from Syria, augmented the problem, according to the Jordan News Agency, Petra. 

He emphasised the measures taken to regulate the labour market for guest workers in a manner that contributes to securing the available jobs for Jordanians.  

He also underlined steps to be taken soon to regulate domestic helpers’ employment to guarantee the rights of employers should a domestic worker escape from his or her workplace for any reason, according to the minister.  

The minister also shed light on the legal process that the ministry is currently following to examine the question of whether or not to raise the minimum wage, pointing out that this is related to the results of an ongoing in-depth study by a technical committee comprising government representatives, workers and business owners. 

AMMAN — The international community and donors have to help Jordan bear the repercussions of hosting Syrian refugees through implementing infrastructure projects in many sectors in host communities, Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour said Tuesday.

The premier made these remarks as he chaired a meeting at the Prime Ministry dedicated to discuss the holistic approach of the 2016-2018 Jordan Response Plan (JRP) to the refugee crisis, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

The meeting is part of the Kingdom's preparations for the fourth donor conference, to be held in London on February 2, aimed at supporting the humanitarian situation in Syria, where Jordan is scheduled to present the holistic approach's details and ways to gather international support.  

Planning and International Cooperation Minister Imad Fakhoury went through the key aspects of the JRP, which came as a result of joint efforts among all relevant ministries, institutions, UN organisations, donors and NGOs, Petra added. 

The approach aims at enabling the Kingdom to receive grants and soft loans, a goal that is being hindered by the fact that Jordan is classified as an upper middle-income country and is not entitled to sufficient assistance to handle the repercussions of the refugee crisis. 

Fakhoury has previously called for “a guarantee that the international community will support host communities affected by the crisis, in addition to providing Jordan with low-interest loans”.

Under the holistic approach, the country also seeks further investments to generate jobs and improve the quality of life in communities hosting Syrian refugees.

Fakhoury has toured main donor countries to present Jordan’s vision on how best to respond to the crisis. He particularly targeted “partners who invest in Jordan and give us loans”. 

These include the G-7, the rest of the European countries, South Korea, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. The idea is to follow “an approach that gets us out of this crisis to reach a win-win situation that would help the Kingdom economically, create job opportunities and, at the same time, alleviate the refugee burden on the international community,” Fakhoury has stated recently.

The minister has stressed that adopting this approach should not be at the expense of supporting the JRP.

The JRP 2016-2018 calls for collective action to better support Syrian refugees and Jordanian people, communities and institutions.

The total cost of response interventions in the JRP 2016-2018 is around $8 billion for three years, according to a website designated for the platform by the Planning Ministry.  

Jordan hosts more than 1.4 million Syrians, with only some 600,000 of them registered as refugees. The funding received from the international community to support Jordan dealing with the impact of the crisis in 2015 did not exceed 37 per cent of the Kingdom’s needs, according to official figures.

AMMAN — The Islamic Action Front (IAF) shura council on Tuesday embarked on discussing amendments to its regulations to allow members of the general assembly to take part in the secretary general’s election and increase the participation of women and young people.

IAF spokesperson Murad Adaileh said only the eight members of the party's shura council elect the secretary general at present, and the move seeks to ensure better participation of the 500 members of the Muslim Brotherhood's political arm.

In addition, the amendments, he noted, include increasing the number of shura council members to 12 and the number of women in the IAF’s leading positions.

Meanwhile, Adaileh told The Jordan Times that the IAF council has not yet discussed the recent mass resignation of 400 of its members.

“We postponed looking into them,” Adaileh said, adding that there is still an effort to convince those who walked out to withdraw their resignations.

On December 31, 400 members including top leaders and founding members tendered their resignations to the leadership of the IAF. 

Before that, they had gathered in a group dubbed the “Partnership and Rescue” committee, which is also known as the “Group of Elders”. 

“We have not yet received any official request for negotiations,” Khaled Hassanain, the Partnership and Rescue committee’s spokesperson, told The Jordan Times on Tuesday. 

However, he said, no attempts will convince the resigning members to revisit their decision as it is “final” and more resignations will be submitted soon.

AMMAN — The Lower House on Tuesday called on Iran to ease off its anti-Saudi rhetoric and stop targeting the security of Gulf states.

Reading a statement on behalf of MPs, House Speaker Atef Tarawneh reiterated Jordan's support for Saudi Arabia in the face of threats.

Tarawneh also called on Iran to stop its “colonialist and interference policies against the brotherly Gulf countries, urging Tehran to adopt good neighbourly policies towards the Arab world”.

He also warned that Tehran's provocative attitude would ignite more tension and sectarianism in the region. 

The speaker also commended Riyadh’s pivotal role in the region and its anti-terror efforts, denouncing the Saturday attacks on the Saudi embassy in Tehran.

Jordan on Monday reiterated its support for Saudi Arabia, which broke off its diplomatic ties with Iran over Riyadh’s execution of a Shiite cleric.

He was referring to the storming of the Saudi embassy in Tehran and consulate in Mashhad, which Amman condemned immediately last Saturday.

On Sunday, Saudi Arabia broke off its ties with Iran, giving Iranian diplomats 48 hours to leave the country, after protesters set fire to its embassy in Tehran and a consulate in second city Mashhad.

Bahrain and Sudan followed suit on Monday, while the UAE reduced its level of diplomatic representation in the Islamic republic. 

AMMAN — Colloquial Arabic dominates the content of TV channels, newspapers and other media outlets, according to the Jordan Academy of Arabic.

The use of colloquial Arabic is even common in advertisements published in newspapers and in TV commercials, some of which are government ads, the academy said in a recent letter to Minister of State for Media Affairs and Communications Mohammad Momani.

The academy, which monitored and observed media outlet content, said it also noticed that the editing of Arabic content in television news is weak. 

The language used during talk shows is also close to colloquial Arabic, which is “inappropriate”, the academy added.

It pointed out that all public and private entities as well as professional associations, NGOs, political parties and companies, are required to use Arabic in their formal activities as stipulated by the law on the protection of Arabic.

A bill on the follow-up of the enforcement of this law is being studied at the Cabinet and it will help address any violations to the Arabic language, the academy indicated.

“It is unfortunate that almost no one is using classical Arabic except at academic institutions such as universities, and that does not even happen all the time,” Areej Hammoudeh, a teacher of Arabic at a private school in Amman, told The Jordan Times on Tuesday.

“This is our language and we have to preserve it by using it. Even when it comes to writing, young people are either writing very poor Arabic or using Arabizi [colloquial Arabic written using English letters] to express their thoughts, especially on social media networks,” Hammoudeh said over the phone.

“I always tell my students how important it is to know classical Arabic and be capable of using it… Even on the Internet, Arabic content is lacking and it is rarely in classical Arabic,” she added.

But Alaa Mousa, an accounting student, does not believe classical Arabic should be used everywhere.

“I don't think I would like to watch any show in classical Arabic. It would be so boring. I prefer colloquial Arabic. It makes things more fun,” the Balqa Applied University student said over the phone.

“If a show is in classical Arabic, I guess it will be rigid and bore viewer. Maybe it should be only used in writings and formal letters”.

The idea of establishing the Jordan Academy of Arabic began to take shape in the first years after the founding of Transjordan in the third decade of the 20th century. 

The Journal of the Arab Scientific Academy in Damascus published the news of the Jordan Academy of Arabic's establishment in January 1924.

It was the second academy of Arabic set up in the Arab world after the Arab Scientific Academy in Damascus, which was founded in 1919. 

But the Jordanian academy was short-lived due to the scarcity of financial, scientific and human resources. 

A Royal Decree was issued in 1976 to establish the Jordan Academy of Arabic, which officially assumed its responsibilities on October 1 that year, and joined the Cairo-based Union of Arab Scientific and Language Academies in 1977, according to its website.

AMMAN — The Lower House on Tuesday endorsed several articles of the draft residency and foreigner affairs law, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported. 

Under the bill, foreigners are assigned a personal number to regulate their entry, exit, registration, residency permits and the duration of their stay.

The draft law also lists the foreigners exempted from obtaining residency permits and stiffens penalties against violators.

Article 5 of the draft law grants the interior minister additional authority to allow the entry of foreigners from any country. 

Responding to questions on this issue, Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour said the Kingdom receives envoys of heads of state or representatives of foreign entities whose missions require secrecy without the need to be registered at the border.

He added that the House has the capacity to supervise the work of the interior minister.

Interior Minister Salameh Hammad said there are emergency cases and political situations that require quick processing without waiting for the Cabinet to convene and take a decision, noting that the law serves the Kingdom, not individuals. 

He said the new articles are meant to deal with those who cross into Jordan from Syria on humanitarian grounds, according to Petra.

The minister also cited Yemenis who hold no official documents and enter by air for medical reasons. 

The present law has been in force since 1973. 

Parliament will resume its deliberations over the law on Sunday.

AMMAN — Although Civil Defence Department (CDD) officer Othman Dheimesh was on leave last Thursday, that did not stop him from coming to the aid of those in need.

When Dheimesh was on his way to meet with a friend in Kufor Al Maa in Irbid Governorate, he noticed a crowd gathered near the road and heard a man shouting: “My children, My children!”. 

The CDD officer decided to pull over and head to the location to see what was going on. 

“There were eight children trapped in a fire that broke out due to a gas leak inside their house,” Dheimesh told The Jordan Times over the phone on Tuesday. 

The officer said that although he was wearing sports clothes and did not have the necessary firefighting attire and equipment, he decided to enter the house and help the children. 

“I carried four children in two trips and it took me only around three minutes. No one there dared to go in and everyone was watching. Later, CDD personnel came to extinguish the fire,” he added. 

On Tuesday, Dheimesh said CDD Director Lt. Gen. Talal Kofahi rewarded him for his action. 

In a statement sent to The Jordan Times, Kofahi highlighted the importance of CDD personnel’s humanitarian role in protecting people’s lives. 

“I was so happy that my work was appreciated,” Dheimesh said.

AMMAN — Twenty-four students from Karak on Tuesday received assistance presented by the Jordanian Hashemite Fund for Human Development’s (JOHUD) Goodwill Campaign.

HRH Princess Basma, head of the campaign’s higher committee, presented the assistance to the students and participated in the distribution of 500 emergency food parcels and in-kind assistance to underprivileged families living in the governorate, some 140km south of Amman.

The assistance is aimed at enabling students to pursue their university education, and is part of the campaign’s efforts to alleviate economic burdens of targeted families, according to a JOHUD statement.

At a meeting with the beneficiary students and families at Al Rashidieh coeducational elementary school, Princess Basma highlighted the significance of voluntary and charitable work in supporting sustainable development in Jordan and overcoming poverty and employment.

The support the campaign receives from national institutions and individual donors is strong proof of the unity of Jordanians and their solidarity, she added, voicing pride in the role Jordanian women play, especially in Karak, to enhance social and economic development.

Karak Governor Abdullah Al Khattab said the campaign’s efforts play a major role in achieving social solidarity by supporting the social security network through sustainable programmes and diversified productive projects, the statement added.

The princess also visited the women’s cooperative society in Manshiet Abu Hammour and checked on the sewing centre at the facility. 

The society received some raw materials for the sewing centre and water-saving devices to support its efforts to reduce household water consumption through assistance from the Goodwill Campaign.

During Tuesday’s tour, the princess visited the Princess Basma Centre in Karak and had a firsthand look at the programmes and activities it implements and its plans to achieve economic development through identifying community needs, securing funding and creating jobs, according to the statement.

AMMAN — Poultry breeders' losses exceeded JD10 million in the last three months due to the "stagnant" market, a sector leader said Tuesday.

Poultry Breeders Union (PBU) President Fares Hammoudeh blamed "high" breeding costs, main market closures and "weak" consumption for the losses.

"There is an oversupply in the sector and low demand," he told The Jordan Times.

Hammoudeh noted that the halt in exports to certain markets, particularly Iraq, also hit the sector hard, calling on the government to support poultry farmers.

"There are direct incentives that can be given to poultry breeders to mitigate their losses. In Ukraine and Brazil, for example, farmers are given fodder to make up for their losses."

He added that the government could also stop the import of frozen chicken.

Over the past years, scores of poultry breeders have protested against the import of frozen chicken and table eggs.

In related news, the recent weather conditions have resulted in the death of around 50,000 chickens, a figure the PBU says is within the "normal" mortality rate.

"Jordanian farmers breed around 15 million chickens a month. We expect around 5 to 10 per cent to die during harsh weather conditions," Hammoudeh said.

He added that poultry farmers were alerted to take the necessary measures during the recent polar front.