Jordan

22 Sep 2020; MEMO: Jordan’s moderate Islamist opposition, Islamic Action Front, announced yesterday that it will run in the parliamentary elections slated for 10 November, Anadolu reported.

The announcement came in a press conference in the capital Amman by the party’s Deputy Secretary-General, Wael Al-Sakka.

22 Sep 2020; MEMO: A Jordanian court has sentenced Walid Al-Kurdi, the husband of King Abdullah’s aunt, to nine years in prison and issued a fine of nine million dinars ($12.7 million), local media reported yesterday.

Al-Kurdi, the husband of Princess Basma Bint Talal, is a former president of the Phosphate Company. He has been living in London since 2013.

17 Sep 2020; MEMO: Prince Ali bin Al-Hussein, the half-brother of Jordan’s King Abdullah II, has mocked a photograph showing the signatories to the normalisation agreement with Israel standing next to each other, without wearing masks in a blatant violation of precautionary measures against the coronavirus.

13 Sep 2020; MEMO: Jordan announced today that necessary steps to achieve a fair peace should come from Israel after Bahrain and Israel announced a normalisation deal, Anadolu Agency reports.

Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said Israel should stop procedures to undermine the two-state solution and end its illegal occupation of Palestinian lands.

AMMAN, Sept 12 (NNN-PETRA) – Jordan said, ending the Israeli occupation and resolving Palestinian-Israeli conflict, based on the two-state solution, play the key role in realising peace in the Middle East.

Jordanian Foreign Minister, Ayman Safadi, made the remarks after the normalisation of ties between Israel and Bahrain was announced.

Safadi said, what is required to realise peace in the region is ending the Israeli occupation and stopping all Israeli measures that undermine the two-state solution.

AMMAN, Sept. 11 (Xinhua) -- A massive explosion rocked a military base in Zarqa Governorate when mortar bombs blew up in a facility affiliated to the army, said Jordanian official.

Preliminary investigations show that the explosion occurred due to a short circuit in the facility where the bombs were stored, said Amjad Adaileh, Jordan's Minister of State for Media Affairs.

The minister said that the facility is located in an unpopulated area and there has been no immediate reports of injuries so far.

10 Sep 2020; MEMO: Jordan has announced plans to conscript 25-29-year-olds into the army for a one-year period in an attempt to tackle rising unemployment in the country.

Plans for the scheme were officially agreed between Labour Minister Nidal Bataineh and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff for the Jordanian army Major General Yousef Huneiti, yesterday, under the supervision of Prime Minister Omar Razzaz.

AMMAN (Reuters) - Syrian President Bashar al Assad said on Monday he was keen to expand economic and business deals with Moscow, his closest ally, to help Syria weather crippling economic sanctions.

Assad, who gave the comments during a meeting in Damascus with Russian Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Borisov and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, said he wanted to see Russian investments in key areas of the economy that had been agreed in the past succeed.

31 Aug 2020; MEMO:  Jordan on Sunday decided to release a cartoonist held for drawing a cartoon mocking a recent deal to normalize relations between the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Israel, Anadolu reports.

AMMAN, Aug. 13 (Xinhua) -- Jordan on Thursday urged Israel to engage in direct and serious peace talks after a peace deal was announced between the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Israel.

The remarks were made by Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi, who said Israel has to choose either the just peace that ends the occupation and resort to the two-state solution or continuing the conflict that is exacerbated by Israel's violations to the legitimate Palestinian rights.

Safadi said in a statement that the deal would be associated with Israel's actions in the post-agreement period.