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AMMAN — Chairman of the Joint Chiefs-of-Staff Gen. Mashal Al Zaben on Thursday left for the UK on a short official visit, during which he will meet with Gen.

Sir John Nicholas Reynolds Houghton, chief of the defence staff of the British armed forces.

AMMAN — A trailer truck driver was killed and a diesel tanker driver injured on Thursday in an accident on the Azraq-Shweir road, according to the Civil Defence Department (CDD).

Both vehicles caught fire as a result of the accident and CDD personnel extinguished the blaze and administered first aid to the injured driver, who suffered third-degree burns, before transferring him to Zarqa Public Hospital, where he was reported to be in fair condition.

Also Thursday, a trailer truck overturned and hit 14 vehicles on the Amman ring road, injuring 10 people.

CDD personnel administered first aid to the injured before transferring them to Al Bashir Hospital and Marka Islamic Hospital, where they were reported to be in fair condition.

AMMAN — HRH Princess Sumaya, president of the Royal Scientific Society (RSS), on Thursday attended the first student conference for entrepreneurship titled “Leaders of Change for a Better Jordan”.

The conference, organised by the Kamaliyeh School for Girls, aims at spreading the culture of entrepreneurship and activating its role in motivating creative thinking that helps build the future.

AMMAN — The Constitutional Court on Thursday rejected a contestation of the constitutionality of the Elections Law.

Court Spokesperson Ahmad Tbeishat said the contestation was rejected on “procedural grounds”.

AMMAN — Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh participated in the “London 11, Friends of Syria” meeting that was held in the British capital on Thursday to discuss the latest developments in the Syrian crisis.

Judeh expressed his appreciation of the efforts exerted by Lakhdar Brahimi, the UN-Arab League envoy on Syria, who has recently resigned. 

In his remarks, Judeh re-asserted Jordan’s position in support of a political solution for the crisis in Syria, calling for a political transition that would meet the aspirations of the Syrian people and safeguard the territorial integrity of Syria and its political independence. 

Highlighting the large number of Syrians in Jordan, including around 600,000 Syrian refugees, who entered the Kingdom since the outbreak of the Syrian crisis, he called on the international community to shoulder its responsibility in this regard. 

AMMAN — Calling for Syrian nationals in Jordan to vote in the upcoming presidential elections, while using the premises of the Syrian embassy in Amman does not require the approval of Jordanian authorities, officials said on Thursday.

Khaled Kalaldeh, minister of political and parliamentary affairs,  said the government of Jordan has only received a “notification” from the Syrian embassy in Amman and not a “request” to hold polls in its premises.

“We cannot approve or reject this,” Kalaldeh told The Jordan Times, adding that all what we can approve or reject is providing security for them.

These views were also echoed by Omar Jazi, an expert in international law. Jazi said it is a “sovereign right” for any country to hold the elections for its nationals in any country provided it is within the vicinity of its embassy.

Any vote-related activity outside the mission needs approval from the host country’s government, according to the expert.

There are no figures of the number of eligible voters among the 1.3 million Syrians living in Jordan, including around 107,000 within guarded refugee camps. 

“The role of the host country is to provide security or whatever is needed outside the embassy’s premises,” Jazi told The Jordan Times.

In a previous statement to the media, Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh said approving or rejecting the Syrian authorities’ request to allow its nationals in the Kingdom to vote in the upcoming presidential elections hinges on the country’s security.

He added that the government is still considering the request it had received from the Syrian embassy in Amman for allowing Syrians to vote in their country’s upcoming elections.

“We do not interfere in Syria’s affairs, but if a decision [allowing Syrians here to vote] will affect our security, we have the right,” to take the appropriate measure, Judeh told the press in response to a question during a press conference he held Tuesday.

The minister added that there is a state of polarisation among Syrians living in Jordan and “we do not want anything that might affect the security of our country”.

In response to these remarks, the Syrian embassy in the Kingdom also said it had sent a “notification”, not a request for permission.

In its statement the embassy confirmed that it has only asked the Jordanian government to provide security on the elections day as “this is the role of the host country”.

According to the latest official figures, around 1.3 million Syrians reside in Jordan.

Over 600,000 of them are registered as refugees, while the rest are not registered as some of them came to the country before the start of the crisis in their homeland.

The upcoming Syrian presidential elections are slated for June 3, according to reports, while Syrians residing abroad will cast their votes at their country’s embassies on May 28.

Currently, three candidates are running for the elections, including incumbent President Bashar Assad.

The other two are Maher Hajjar and Hassan Abdullah Al Nouri.

The UN says over 150,000 have been killed so far in the Syrian civil war, which started with peaceful anti-regime protests in 2011.

AMMAN — The partnership between the US and Jordan has never been more important as the two countries jointly work to achieve peace in the Middle East and to promote a democratic transition in Syria, a US diplomat said on Wednesday.

Alice G. Wells, ambassador-designate to Jordan, said the United States and Jordan “share concerns about destabilisation in the region and increasing extremist activity. We have a strong history of mutual resolve and cooperation against terrorist threats, including in Afghanistan and Iraq, where King Abdullah directed that Jordan be part of the answer to restoring stability and countering the message of violent extremists.” 

In a statement she delivered in front of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee,Wells noted that: “Our multifaceted partnership with the Hashemite Kingdom aims to demonstrate to the people of Jordan and the region the benefits of choosing their path of moderation, of political and economic reform, of peace with one’s neighbours”.

On April 12, US President Barack Obama announced his intent to nominate Alice G. Wells as ambassador to Jordan, according to a White House press statement.

A career member of the foreign service, class of minister counsellor, Wells is currently senior adviser at the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs at the Department of State.

However, the designate ambassador needs to be confirmed by a vote of the Senate.

According to sources, if the Senate voted for Wells to assign her tasks as an ambassador to Jordan, she might assume her new post as of September this year. The incumbent US ambassador to Jordan Stuart Jones was nominated to Iraq.

Meanwhile, in her statement before the Senate, a copy of which was e-mailed to The Jordan Times, the nominated ambassador said as a testament to US support for Jordan, the Jordanian people, what Jordan stands for, and what it has achieved, in the 15 years since King Abdullah ascended the Throne, “The United States has provided over $10 billion in assistance”.

She also referred to the constraints that the Kingdom is facing due to hosting 600,000 Syrian refugees with the majority of whom are residing in host communities, noting that the US has a strategic interest in ensuring that the Hashemite Kingdom can meet its international humanitarian obligations without jeopardising its own economic and political stability.

“Jordan grapples with the loss of export routes through Syria, a steep decline in tourism, negative investor sentiment resulting from the war, and an energy bill that rose to 21% of its GDP when Egypt could no longer deliver on its natural gas contracts,” Wells said in her statement before the Senate.

In response to these needs, she explained that the US government is providing Jordan with a broad package of aid designed to bolster services strained by the refugee influx and help safeguard Jordan’s economic and political reform. 

“Jordan was the fifth largest recipient of bilateral assistance in the fiscal year 2013. With strong, bipartisan support from Congress, US support to Jordan has totalled over $1 billion in both fiscal years 2012 and 2013”.

“Our bilateral assistance alone will exceed $1 billion in fiscal year 2014... This assistance has helped to reduce the financial strain on the sectors directly affected by refugees”.

Last month, the US signed the second sovereign loan guarantee of $1.25 billion, which will allow Jordan to access affordable financing from international capital markets.

Wells said: “I will work to ensure that our assistance, our policies, and our diplomatic platform to advance US interests and further Jordan’s ability to withstand the Syrian crisis, counter terrorism, serve as an example of political and economic reform, and advance peace in the Middle East, while building bridges between US and Jordanian societies”.

AMMAN — The Kingdom has not called back any of its ambassadors in the Arab countries, a government official stressed on Thursday.

Sabah Al Rafie, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson, said “our ambassadors to Iraq and Yemen are on personal leaves, while our ambassador to Lebanon is still at his work place”.

Fears mounted after Jordan’s ambassador to Libya was kidnapped and then freed after Jordan extradited a convicted Libyan terrorist to Tripoli.

These remarks came in response to news reports stating that Jordan has withdrawn its ambassadors in some of the regional danger zones.

Early this week, Minister of Foreign Affairs Nasser Judeh said as for summoning Jordan’s ambassador in Yemen, the move was a “preventive measure”. The minister explained that the envoy had already asked for a vacation to spend in Amman, “but we accelerated his return”.

Meanwhile, Iraqi news reports stated that Jordan has withdrawn its ambassador in Baghdad, which will affect the relations between the two countries.

AMMAN — The Muslim Brotherhood is reportedly set to introduce a series of internal reforms to calm a growing controversy over the expulsion of three leading members for involvement in a potentially rival movement, sources say. 

In a decision late Tuesday, Hammam Saeed, overall leader of the Brotherhood’s branch in Jordan, issued a decision to overhaul an internal party court which last month rescinded the membership of Rheil Gharaibeh, Nabil Kofahi and Jamal Dheisat for their involvement in the National Building Initiative (Zamzam), according to a Brotherhood source. 

In an emergency session of the movement’s shura council, the Brotherhood’s largest decision-making body, Saeed ordered a review of the internal court’s by-laws “within the next two weeks” in light of the polarising case. 

In the same decision, Saeed also moved to “freeze” all recent decisions issued by the court, according to the source, who serves on the shura council and preferred to remain anonymous. 

“There is a consensus that the party court overstepped its jurisdiction in the recent decision,” said the source.

It was unclear as of late Thursday whether the three expelled members, who belong to the movement’s liberal faction, would be reinstated as part of the move.

In its decision, the internal court claimed that the three men failed to make their case that Zamzam will not stand as a rival political movement to the Brotherhood.

Prior to the court’s decision, Brotherhood leaders had expressed concern that the initiative, which has drawn over 800 members since its official launch in October 2013, may support policies contradictory to the Islamist movement’s stances on key issues.

AMMAN — Foreign funding for civil society organisations (CSOs) is a major challenge that threatens security and stability, but the best reaction is to monitor it rather than ban it, activists said on Wednesday.

At a workshop held by the Institute for Leadership Excellence (ILE) on Wednesday, participants examined needed amendments to the CSOs Law.

“We must amend this law in a way to ensure that this sector becomes stronger without jeopardising national interests,” Deputy Hazem Qashou said, adding that the number of active CSOs in a country reflects its advanced level.

On the other hand, columnist and former senator Jihad Momani said this is not necessarily correct, as “we need quality rather than more CSOs” in Jordan.

More than 4,000 CSOs are currently registered in the country, with many of them working in the same field, according to official figures.

This is a huge number that slows down sector performance and needlessly increases competition among organisations, workshop participants noted.

But Qashou disagreed, stressing that a country is defined as advanced or not based on the number of active CSOs.

Dima Khleifat, secretary general of the National Registry of Societies at the Social Development Ministry, criticised previous laws that govern this sector, calling for a more open and fair law to ensure that volunteerism is encouraged and supported.

Khleifat said CSOs offer capabilities that are not available in the public and private sectors.

“We need to strengthen this sector to ensure that citizens are engaging with their local communities, and to help the public sector respond promptly and efficiently in cases of emergency,” she added.

The government has almost completed the draft amendments to the CSOs Law and “is now putting the final touches on it”, Khleifat noted.

The amendments address registration and licensing; financing, including foreign funding; monitoring; and applying good governance as a means to observe the work of CSOs in the country.

Over the past few years Jordan has witnessed a boom in the number of such organisations.

But some participants at the workshop charged that a few of them have been engaged in “suspicious transactions”, citing examples of CSOs that receive funds from more than one foreign donor for the same project.

Some CSOs have damaged the image of those who seek to work honestly in volunteerism, forcing the government to tighten its measures against them and making international donors reluctant when dealing with them, participants said.

The workshop was held in order to prevent such practices in the future through injecting specific amendments to address loopholes in the law, said Lina Arafat, head of the ILE, which is a nonprofit, non-government entity that works to promote and consolidate awareness of democratic culture and civic education in the community.