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AMMAN — Border Guards units on Sunday foiled an infiltration attempt by an Arab national who tried to cross from Jordan into Syria, an official source from the Jordan Armed Forces- Arab Army said on Sunday.

Rules of engagement observed under such conditions were implemented, and the man was apprehended and referred to the appropriate authorities, the source said.

AMMAN — Interior Minister Salameh Hammad on Sunday paid an unannounced visit to the Civil Status and Department (CSPD) and checked the services available to citizens.

He stressed the importance of the department improving its services and granting CSPD branches across the Kingdom full authority.

The ministry has recently floated a tender for designing smart ID cards which could be the only card to be used in the next parliamentary elections if it is ready on time, Salameh noted.

CSPD Director Marwan Qteishat said the department has finished around 2 million transactions and issued more than 50,000 ID cards for the children of Jordanian women married to foreigners, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

AMMAN — Self-evaluation is important for enhancing internal monitoring in the public sector, said Audit Bureau President Mustafa Barari on Sunday.

Inaugurating a three-day workshop held at the bureau, Barari noted that internal monitoring sections in public institutions help managements draw up proper plans and policies, and play a role in guaranteeing work progress is on the right track.

Around 60 employees from several public institutions are participating in the event, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

AMMAN — During a Cabinet session on Sunday, Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour directed Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister Mohammad Thneibat to coordinate a programme involving the education, higher education and tourism ministries to allocate a day for tourism awareness at Jordanian schools, colleges and universities.

The aim of the initiative is to increase public awareness on how to receive tourists and reflect a “civilised image” of the country, as tourism is an important source for the national economy contributing thousands of work opportunities for Jordanians, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

AMMAN — The Greater Amman Municipality (GAM) has finished cleaning water passages, identifying locations of rainwater canals and numbering them for future reference, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported on Sunday.

As part of its preparations for winter, GAM also cleaned manholes and rainwater canals, in addition to implementing maintenance on water pumps at road tunnels. GAM’s emergency personnel in winter will also be working according to the weather forecast. 

AMMAN — Five people died and seven were injured in road accidents on Sunday. In a two-vehicle collision in east Amman, one person died and three were injured, according to the Civil Defence Department (CDD).

Also on Sunday, one died and three were injured when their vehicle overturned on Jaber Bridge, while three others were killed and another injured when their vehicle overturned in Aqaba. 

AMMAN — Border Guard personnel received 209 Syrian refugees within the past 72 hours and transferred them to shelters and camps set up for this purpose, an army source said Sunday.

Royal Medical Services cadres provided essential healthcare services and medications for the sick and injured, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

AMMAN — The government will hold the first national census in November following a 10-year gap, a period during which the population of Jordan is expected to have doubled.

With the participation of over 25,000 employees, the 2015 national population and housing census is expected to cost the Department of Statistics (DoS) well under JD14 million, compared to JD18.5 million in 2004, according to the DoS website.

The 10-day count is critical for the Kingdom’s fact-based approach to infrastructure and facilities development, including schools, hospitals and water resources, Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour said.

Even though the country has been reeling from the impact of hosting 1.4 million Syrians, the premier stressed that the census does not have political aims and is not related to any nationals residing in the country, be they Syrians, Egyptians, Iraqis or of other nationalities.

Chairing a DoS meeting for the higher ministerial committee of the 2015 census, Ensour said the count will include all residents of the Kingdom, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

The timing of the census was set to ensure that regular residents of the Kingdom are inside the country, Ensour said, as the government was trying to avoid summer and Hajj seasons. 

He insisted that the information in the census will be classified and only for statistical use, stating that citizens will incur no risks and the census will only include numbers, not names.

Ensour said the census is important as Jordan’s 2025 vision was based on inaccurate figures, causing application difficulties. The final results of the census, which will be announced in February 2016, are expected to provide the accurate numbers needed for the country’s development.

Field workers will use tablets and will be offered all the necessary training to carry out the census, Petra reported.

According to the 2012 amendments to the 1950 General Statistics Law, a population and housing census is to be conducted every 10 years, with the last census being carried out in 2004.

It then put the Kingdom’s population at 5.1 million. Current DoS estimates put the Kingdom’s population at 10 million, including refugees and guest labourers.

Planning Minister Imad Fakhoury said DoS has finished the first phase of dividing the Kingdom’s governorates into blocks, and has so far finished 25 per cent of the second phase, expected to conclude by the end of October.

DoS Director General Qasim Zu’bi said the census will provide additional data related to migration, unemployment, disabilities and data on non-Jordanians who voluntarily entered the Kingdom or came as refugees. It will also provide modern statistical frameworks in the fields of population, economy and agriculture. 

AMMAN — The recent diplomatic embarrassment for Israel with Jordan has been the talk of the town on social media.

Thursday, in a clear breach of protocol, Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely interrupted Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh during his address in a meeting for donor countries to the Palestinian Authority, held on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.

One person in the room said that the meeting’s chairman, Norwegian Foreign Minister Borge Brende, had to call Hotovely to order twice, Israel Haaretz reported. 

According to The Guardian, the confrontation started after Hotovely's address in which she attacked Palestinians defending the holy shrine. 

According to reports, Hotovely said: “The conflict will be resolved when the basic values of the Palestinian Authority change. As long as Palestinian children dream of becoming engineers to blow up Jews’, none of these economic efforts will achieve their goal.”

She also criticised the address to the UN made by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas accusing him of incitement when he spoke of Israelis defiling Al Aqsa Mosque with their boots, reported the Guardian. 

Replying to Hotovely, Judeh, set aside his own speech. “I have a written address but I do not plan to give it because I cannot not respond to what we have heard from the Israeli representative,” he said, according to the Guardian. 

Referring to recent Israeli aggressions at the religious site, Judeh said that when Israeli soldiers enter Al Aqsa with boots on, it offends the 1.5 billion Muslims across the world and is liable to set off a religious war. He added sarcastically that Jordan cannot “take Israel’s security interests more seriously than Israel itself”, said Haaretz.  

According to The Jerusalem Post, the diplomat accused Judeh of “distorting history” and of following in the footsteps of the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in denying the existence of a Jewish temple at the holy site, said the Guardian. 

Although the incident was circulated by many media outlets, The Jordan Times could not reach officials at the Foreign Ministry to confirm the incident. 

However, the ministry retweeted some details of the argument through its official Twitter account.

The incident caught the attention of many people on social media, who deemed it a “triumph over the arrogance of Israel”.

“Judeh represents the Jordanian foreign policy, [whose] stance [has] always been in support of the Palestinian issue. The country, its King and nation have never let go of Palestine and its people,” said Maisara Alkam on Facebook. 

Abbas Bani Salameh also praised the “courage” and “political eloquence” of the minister in responding to the Israeli representatives’ remarks. 

On the other hand, some commentators said they had hoped for a “more courageous stance”.

“We expected Judeh to threaten Israel by expelling its ambassador in Jordan or reconsider[ing] the Wadi Araba Treaty,” said Ali Mustapaha.

Salah Awamleh described the incident as a “very normal reaction for Jordan over the atrocities committed against Palestinians”, saying that “Judeh’s response should have been tougher”.

AMMAN — Jordan has a direct interest in the establishment of an independent Palestinian state and final-status issues, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh said Friday.

Participating in a plenary Middle East Quartet meeting, held on the sidelines of the 70th Session of the United Nations General Assembly, Judeh highlighted the importance of resuming serious, effective and time-bound negotiations between the Palestinians and the Israelis, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

These negotiations should lead to the implementation of the two-state solution and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital within the June 4, 1967 lines, based on relevant international references and the Arab Peace Initiative, Judeh stressed.

The minister also referred to the continuous Israeli violations and provocations on Al Aqsa Mosque which could hamper the peace process, underlining the importance for Israel to immediately stop these acts.

Thousands of Palestinian worshippers performed the Friday prayer on streets outside Al Haram Al Sharif  because of the intensified military blockade Israeli occupation forces imposed around the sanctuary, Petra reported.

The Islamic awqaf department in East Jerusalem said the occupation forces banned those who are less than 40 years old from entering the old city and performing prayers at Al Aqsa Mosque.

On Thursday, Judeh participated in a meeting for the Organisation of the Islamic Cooperation, where he called on Islamic countries to unite in defence of the true image of Islam after the terrorist and extremist organisations distorted its values of tolerance and acceptance of others, Petra reported on Friday.

In this regard, Judeh referred to importance of related initiatives His Majesty King Abdullah adopted such as the Amman Message and A Common Word, and the unanimous adoption by the UN General Assembly in 2011 of  King Abdullah’s initiative to dedicate the first week of February to international tolerance among all faiths.

He added that focusing on the youth and engaging them in efforts to stop violence and work for sustainable peace is highly important, stressing that youth issues are not restricted to education and religion, but also are related to politics and economy and safeguarding them against recruitment and brainwashing of terrorist organisations.

The top diplomat also referred to the Syrian crisis and its repercussions on neighbouring countries, especially Jordan, which hosts refugees representing more than 20 per cent of its population. The influx is leading these neighbours to face several challenges especially after donors and, subsequently, some UN agencies halted their support to them. 

At another meeting on Libya on Friday, called by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Judeh said that supporting Libya and providing assistance to its people should remain as a top priority for the international community.

At the meeting, attended by several foreign ministers and international organisations, he noted the Kingdom supported the Libyan people from the beginning of the February 17 revolution, and will continue its support to Libyans through its relations with the legitimate authority in the country, Petra added.

Jordan will not spare any effort to support the Libyan people in different regional and international events through its non-permanent membership in the UN Security Council, the minister said.