Local

AMMAN — Senate President Abdur-Ra’uf S. Rawabdeh on Sunday met with his Indonesian counterpart Sidarto Danusubroto and discussed prospects for further cooperation.

Talks covered regional developments, particularly the Palestinian issue and the Syrian crisis.

The two officials also discussed economic challenges facing Jordan due to hosting large numbers of Syrian refugees.

Also on Sunday, Lower House Speaker Atef Tarawneh met with Danusubroto and discussed bilateral ties and regional issues.

AMMAN — The government on Sunday signed an agreement with the Arab Renewable Energy Commission (AREC) to establish its headquarters in Amman.

AREC Chairman HRH Prince Asem Bin Nayef and Trade Minister Hatem Halawani signed the agreement.

AREC aims at raising public awareness on green energy utilisation within the Arab region and promoting its use in economic and social development.

AMMAN — Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour on Sunday attended the launch of a study on tax evasion in Jordan by the Economic and Social Council.

The study revealed that unpaid taxes amount to around JD1.9 billion, with income and sales tax evasion accounting for JD700 million.

Highlighting the importance of the study, Ensour thanked the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation for its continued support to the council and for sponsoring the study.

MAFRAQ — Residents of Mafraq Municipality, who include over 130,000 Syrian refugees, currently generate 200 tonnes of garbage daily, with sanitation services unable to keep up, Mafraq Mayor Ahmad Hawamdeh said Sunday.

The municipality has only three trash compactors that cannot handle such a great amount, Hawamdeh said, adding that financial difficulties and a staff shortage have exacerbated the sanitation situation in Mafraq.

The municipality has floated a tender to select a private company to collect garbage for six months until it buys new compactors.

Seventy per cent of Mafraq municipality’s JD6 million budget is paid as salaries to its 650 employees, including 60 sanitation workers.

AMMAN — Jordanian Electric Power Company (JEPCO) employees continued their strike for the fourth day on Sunday after negotiations between the Electricity Workers Union (EWU) and JEPCO administration reached a deadlock.

EWU President Ali Hadid said the strike was legal and called on the Labour Ministry to protect the workers’ interests.

The striking employees are demanding a full month’s salary as an end of service compensation for every year of employment.

They also want all employees to be treated on an equal footing, in terms of leave and medical insurance benefits.

AMMAN — The Anti-Narcotics Department (AND) on Sunday seized 309 kilogrammes of cocaine after four months of investigation, the Public Security Department (PSD) said.

Investigation began after AND received a tip about an operation to smuggle large quantities of cocaine through Jordan to a neighbouring country.

The shipment came from a Latin American country.

The drugs were hidden in a shipment of plastic granules on board a ship in the Port of Aqaba.

The PSD said it was the largest haul seized by AND, adding that two suspects were detained.

AMMAN — The Muslim Brotherhood’s shura council on Saturday moved to form a committee to reach out to three recently expelled members to heal a growing rift threatening to divide the country’s largest opposition group.

The council tasked former MP and senator Abdul Latif Arabiyat to reach out to Rheil Gharaibeh, Jamal Dheisat and Nabil Kofahi, who were expelled under an internal court decision for their involvement in the establishment of the National Building Initiative (Zamzam).

According to Brotherhood sources, the mediation team will be given a one-month period to reach an “understanding” with the expelled members in order to reincorporate them into the movement.

The move comes as the latest step by the Brotherhood’s conservative leadership to contain a crisis that has seen a rising number of prominent Islamists calling for the dissolution of the movement’s governing bodies.

In an emergency summit last week, the shura council moved to reform the Brotherhood’s internal court and its decision to expel the three members was “suspended”, according to sources.

Also last week, the Brotherhood’s northern branch called for a general conference later this month to “reform” the movement’s conservative-dominated leadership and dissolve its executive office.

AMMAN — HRH Princess Basma on Sunday presented awards to winners of the 2013/2014 Queen Alia Competition for Social Responsibility.

The theme of the 29th annual competition, organised by the Jordanian Hashemite Fund for Human Development (JOHUD), was solar energy and its use, bringing the issue to light through awareness campaigns that reached more than 551,611 households across Jordan, according to organisers.

“The success of the competition is linked to citizens’ interaction with it and participation in its activities and awareness messages,” said the princess, who is president of JOHUD’s board of trustees.

During the ceremony, attended by JOHUD Executive Director Farah Daghistani, Princess Basma noted that the competition will mark its 30th anniversary next year with new programmes that meet the needs of the local community and improve social behaviour.

Muzahem Muhaisin, president of the competition’s higher committee, underlined its importance in entrenching volunteerism and social responsibility among citizens in cooperation with the public and private sectors, and civil society organisations.

He said the value of this year’s 551 awards amounted to JD46,850 donated by philanthropists and state agencies.

Launched in 1995, the competition seeks to shed light on prominent issues such as water, the environment and health and to raise public awareness on ways to address these issues by distributing questionnaires to education departments across the Kingdom.

AMMAN — Iraq’s parliament fully supports a project to build an $18 billion pipeline to export crude oil from Basra to Jordan’s port city of Aqaba, Adnan Al Janabi, chairman of its energy committee, said Sunday.

“We are very supportive of this strategic project with Jordan, which will greatly help Iraq increase its oil exports across the world,” Janabi told The Jordan Times on the sidelines of the Iraq Future Energy Forum, attended by representatives from several international companies in the field of oil and gas.

The 1,680-kilometre double pipeline will pump one million barrels of oil a day from Basra on the Arabian Gulf to Aqaba Port, and around 258 million cubic feet of gas. 

The Basra-Aqaba oil pipeline, which is expected to be operational late in 2017, will provide Jordan with 150,000 barrels of- oil per day, while the rest will be exported through Aqaba, generating an estimated $3 billion a year in revenues for the Kingdom. 

Approximately 100 million cubic feet of natural gas will fulfil Jordan’s gas requirements and the rest will be used in pumping stations along the double pipeline. 

Janabi announced Sunday that negotiations are under way between Iraq and Jordan to build a refinery in Aqaba to be jointly financed by the public and private sectors in the two countries.

“The refinery will help facilitate the export of the oil and bring great benefits to the two countries,” he said.

Baghdad has recently shortlisted 12 international companies to build the pipeline, according to Iraqi officials and the State Company for Oil Projects is expected to invite these firms to submit their offers by November or December.

Abdulilah Al Amir, technical adviser to Hussain Al Shahristani, who is deputy prime minister for energy affairs, said the project will help absorb the increasing quantities of oil produced in Basra.

Iraq’s production of oil averaged about three million barrels per day in 2013, and the number is growing as the government is working on mega-projects to develop and increase production, Amir said.

The increase in production is coupled with work on strategic projects such as the Basra-Aqaba pipeline, which will significantly increase Iraq’s oil exports, he added.

Iraq’s production of oil is expected to reach 4.9 million barrels per day in 2015 and 9 million barrels per day in 2020, according to Amir. 

AMMAN — Jordan appreciates Germany’s support aimed at mitigating the burden of hosting hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees despite its limited resources, Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh said Sunday.

At a meeting with State Secretary of the German Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs Stephan Steinlein, Judeh said Jordan needs more international support to continue to play its humanitarian role towards refugees.

He also reviewed the latest developments in Syria, reiterating Jordan’s position, which calls for a peaceful political solution that maintains the security and unity of the neighbouring country and involves all segments of its community.

In addition, Judeh called for exerting all efforts to push the Middle East peace process forward, arriving at the establishment of an independent Palestinian state on the June 4, 1967 border, with East Jerusalem as its capital.

Steinlein said his country appreciates and supports Jordan’s key role in addressing regional issues.

Also on Sunday, Jordan and Canada agreed to maintain coordination and consultation over all issues of mutual concern.

At a meeting with Canadian Liberal Foreign Affairs Critic Marc Garneau, Judeh discussed bilateral ties and the latest regional developments.

Judeh briefed Garneau, a prominent leader of the Liberal Party of Canada and member of the Canadian House of Commons, on the outcomes of the meeting of the “London 11” core group of the Friends of Syria, with the two sides stressing the need to reach a political solution to the Syrian crisis.

The foreign minister also presented a briefing on Jordan’s burdens resulting from hosting more than 600,000 Syrian refugees, calling on the international community to shoulder its responsibility and assist the Kingdom in this regard.

Turning to the Middle East peace process, Judeh reiterated the centrality of the Palestinian question, underlining that the region and also the world will continue to suffer from insecurity and instability without a just solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

He added that establishing an independent Palestinian state is among Jordan’s higher interests, voicing the Kingdom’s support for US Secretary of State John Kerry’s efforts to achieve a breakthrough in the peace negotiations.