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AMMAN — The Lower House Integrity and Transparency Committee has decided to hold a closed meeting with the administration of the Royal University for Medical Sciences (RUMS) and the Higher Education Accreditation Commission to discuss the reasons behind the delay in granting it accreditation, deputy head of the committee Hind Fayez said on Monday.

The committee will issue recommendations regarding the university, she said.

A delegation representing the committee visited the university on Monday to check on its premises.

AMMAN — Education Minister Mohammad Thneibat on Monday said the ministry will hold an evaluation examination for students of the first three elementary grades to test their writing, reading and maths skills.

During a meeting with ministry officials, he said the ministry will draw up a plan based on the exam results to improve the students’ skills in these subjects.

AMMAN — Jordan and Russia on Monday examined the possibility of increasing the number of Russian government-funded grants for Jordanian students.

During a meeting between Higher Education Minister Amin Mahmoud and Russia’s Ambassador to Jordan Boris Bolotin, talks focused on ways to boost academic cooperation.

They also discussed problems related to certificate accreditation.

The Russian government has issued a decision to increase the number of scholarships extended to foreign students and this raises Jordan’s annual share, Bolotin said.

AMMAN — Border guards received 677 Syrian refugees in the past 24 hours, according to figures released on Monday.

The refugees, who entered through illegal entry points along the Jordanian-Syrian border, included injured Syrians.

After receiving first aid, the refugees were sent to the Zaatari Refugee Camp.

AMMAN — His Majesty King Abdullah on Monday called for international joint efforts to pre-empt any nuclear disaster, urging partners to instil a culture of nuclear security across the board.

In his remarks at a working dinner held by Dutch King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima in honour of participants at the Nuclear Security Summit 2014, held in The Hague, the King said: “We simply cannot wait for such a catastrophe to happen before we act. We must be ahead and stay ahead of the threat.”

According to a Royal Court statement, King Abdullah, who headed Jordan’s delegation to the high-profile summit, was speaking at the dinner on behalf of more than 50 states taking part in the two-day summit. 

He urged an anti-nuclear armament culture as a prerequisite for nuclear security. 

His Majesty said that nuclear security demands a two-layer shield, namely, tough security precautions and transparency that contributes to an alert and confident public.

Outlining the Kingdom’s efforts in the field, the Monarch said that Jordan has made nuclear security and cooperation a priority, noting that the Kingdom would soon ratify the International Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism.

He called for a “strong joint communiqué and the follow-up it needs”.

To enhance cooperation, he urged partners to contribute to the effort through information sharing, technologies and training.

The Jordanian delegation to the summit comprises Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh, King’s Office Director Imad Fakhoury, HH Prince Zeid Raad, Jordan’s permanent representative to the UN, and Jordanian Ambassador to the Netherlands Ahmad Mefleh. 

More than 5,000 delegates are attending the summit along with representatives of regional and international organisations.

The summit was first initiated by US President Barack Obama, who, in a speech delivered in 2009 in Prague, described nuclear terrorism as one of the greatest threats to international security and called for joint international efforts to prevent nuclear terrorism by agreeing on specific points to help achieve nuclear security.

Sideline meetings 

On the sidelines of the summit, King Abdullah held talks with head of delegates and key figures participating in the meeting.

He met with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. 

Talks covered bilateral ties and prospects for further cooperation at all levels, in addition to the latest regional and international developments, according to the statement. 

His Majesty underlined Jordan’s stance in supporting efforts to bring about comprehensive and just peace between Palestinians and Israelis according to the two-state solution, international resolutions and the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative.

He stressed the need for the efforts to arrive at the establishment of an independent and viable Palestinian state on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.

Discussions also focused on the latest developments in Syria. The King called for hammering out a comprehensive political solution to the crisis to end the suffering of Syrians, citing the burdens Jordan is enduring due to hosting the largest number of Syrian refugees. 

King Abdullah noted that the Kingdom, which holds a UN Security Council seat representing Arab Asia and the Far East, seeks to play a role in entrenching security, stability and world peace and help overcome crises facing nations. 

During his meeting with the Dutch prime minister, the Monarch commended the Netherlands for hosting the nuclear summit to contribute to improving international cooperation and awareness on issues related to security and peace, the statement said.   

According to The Hague conference’s literature, the main priorities of the summit this year were defined as: strengthening the international legal regime through bringing the amended Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material into force, improving nuclear security assurances and broadening the NSS process to address radioactive material and military sources of nuclear material in addition to nuclear fissile material emphasised in the 2010 and 2012 summits. 

AMMAN — Oman is looking to increase its cooperation with Jordan in the judicial sector, Omani Justice Minister Abdulmalik Bin Abdullah Al Khalili said on Monday during a meeting with Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour.

The premier highlighted regional developments and their repercussions on Jordan, especially the several waves of refugees that Jordan has received over the past years.

Also Monday, Justice Minister Bassam Talhouni met with the Omani official and discussed ways to enhance cooperation.

AMMAN — Generations For Peace (GFP) and the Norwegian embassy signed on Monday a three-year partnership agreement to support peace-building programmes in the Middle East and North Africa, according to a GFP statement.

The embassy’s support amounts to approximately JD850,000 over the period 2014-2016.

“The embassy’s support will enable us to expand our reach in the region, training and mentoring our volunteer youth leaders to use sport, arts, advocacy and dialogue as tools for transforming conflict in their local communities, and passing their skills and knowledge onto others to create lasting positive change,” HRH Prince Feisal, GFP founder and chairman, said in the statement.

“Supporting peace building is a priority for the Norwegian government,” the statement quoted Norwegian Ambassador Sissel Breie as saying.

AMMAN — Several activists on Monday organised a march to commemorate the third anniversary of the March 24 protest, which was held at the Interior Ministry Circle in 2011 and ended with clashes between security forces, protesters and counter-protesters.

Security forces on Monday closed the vital circle, which connects west and east Amman, to traffic and pedestrians, forcing the activists to change the destination of the rally, which started from Abdali and ended in the Nuzha area.

The tight security measures caused traffic jams across the capital’s main arteries.

KUWAIT — His Majesty King Abdullah will head Jordan’s delegation to the 25th Arab Summit that will start in Kuwait Tuesday amidst deep inter-Arab disputes and the absence of several Arab leaders.

The King was expected to leave for the pan-Arab meeting from The Hague, where he was attending a nuclear conference, while Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour and Royal Court Chief Fayez Tarawneh left for Kuwait on Monday, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported. 

Kuwait’s summit is expected to be dominated by the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict with two-thirds of the summit’s resolutions focusing on the issue, according to a draft communiqué. 

Arab leaders are likely to endorse a resolution to technically and financially support Jordan to deal with the impact of some 1.3 million Syrians living in the country, including some 600,000 registered refugees, a Jordanian official said here.

They are also expected to voice support for an agreement signed between Jordan and Palestine last year that reaffirms the status of King Abdullah as the custodian of the holy sites in Jerusalem, according to the draft resolutions.

The Syrian conflict, which entered its fourth year and has so far claimed the lives of some 150,000 Syrians, will be a key issue on Tuesday’s agenda.

However, rifts among Arab states continue to be evident about how to tackle the crisis in Syria, whose seat will remain vacant at the summit, held in Kuwait for the first time after it became an Arab League member in 1961.

“There is no military solution to the crisis in Syria. The solution only comes through negotiations and a political settlement, which represents the optimal and sole way to end the bloody conflict in Syria,” Kuwait’s Foreign Affairs Minister Sheikh Sabah Al Khaled Al Sabah said in a speech Sunday at the opening of the meeting of the Arab foreign ministers here.

Qatari Foreign Minister Khalid Al Attiya called for firmer measures against Syria.

“We have to provide all forms of material and political support, maintain firm solidarity with the Syrian people, strengthen the capacity of the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, and work actively to stop the killings and displacement of the innocent Syrian people,” Attiya said at the meeting.

He also called for using all means to urge the Security Council to issue a binding resolution to impose a ceasefire in Syria and resort to Chapter VII of the UN Charter, which allows it to “determine the existence of any threat to the peace, breach of the peace, or act of aggression” and to take military and non-military action to “restore international peace and security”.

The issue of suspending Syria’s seat at the 22-member Arab League and giving it to the Syrian National Coalition was also one of the issues that triggered disputes among some Arab states, according to a copy of the draft resolutions of the summit.

Iraq and Algeria reiterated their reservations on giving Syria’s seat to the Syria National Coalition, while Lebanon remained neutral on the controversy. The rest of the Arab states renewed their support for giving the seat to the coalition, but said some measures are yet to be completed before the body officially assumes the new status.

The ministers avoided tackling the rifts between Qatar and the three other Gulf states as well as Egypt during the ministerial meeting. However, diplomatic sources said the issue is expected to be discussed bilaterally during the summit.

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain have recalled their ambassadors from Qatar recently in protest of Doha’s perceived support for the Muslim Brotherhood, which was recently branded a terrorist organisation by Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

Customary condemnation of the external threats faced by the Arab people, including the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories, the violations against Al Aqsa Mosque and Palestinians, and the occupation of the Golan Heights, will also be reiterated during the summit, according to the draft final statement.

AMMAN — Anti-Narcotics Department (AND) and Special Forces agents raided a marijuana farm in Balqa and arrested a suspect at dawn on Monday, official sources said.

AND agents were acting on a tip they received that a farm in Balqa Governorate, some 35km northwest of Amman, was cultivating marijuana for limited local consumption, a police official told The Jordan Times.“One person was arrested without any major incidents,” the official said, adding that agents seized dozens of marijuana saplings. The State Security Court prosecution has been notified about the incident to “take legal action against the farm owners”, the official noted.

In a similar raid earlier this year, agents stormed nine farms and houses, also in Balqa, arresting 13 suspects and seizing 200 kilogrammes of marijuana seedlings.

At the time, an AND official told The Jordan Times that the raids were planned.

“Our campaigns are ongoing against farms and houses in this area, because we know that people regularly plant marijuana here,” the official said, adding that one way to closely monitor these houses is via aerial surveillance.

“We take aerial photos of farms and houses then analyse them to determine what kind of seedlings are being planted in each area,” he explained.

A total of 8,945 suspects were involved in around 6,504 drug cases last year, according to official figures. The authorities seized over 22 million Captagon pills, 444 kilogrammes of hashish and 5,007 kilos of marijuana in 2013.

According to AND statistics, 154 kilogrammes of marijuana were seized in 2011, 106 kilogrammes in 2010 and 30 kilogrammes in 2009.