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Breaking News:
Mukram Ahmad Al-Tarawneh
Within roughly two weeks, the Hamoud church crime in Karak was carried out, claiming the lives of nine innocent people, followed by the killing of security officer Jawad Al-Slayta in Amman. Both crimes were committed by criminals linked to takfiri terrorist currents. Are these two separate crimes, or is there something that points to the involvement of groups or networks seeking to target Jordan and destabilise it?
Yesterday, in the opening of the ordinary session of Parliament, His Majesty the King's speech expressed the need for genuine change in our institutions and our society, so that we may reach the Jordan we want. We have spent enough time on endless debates and on drawing up plans and strategies that we celebrate launching, only to see too few results to make a real difference in people's lives.
Dr. Kamel Al-Ajlouni has undertaken an important endeavor through his encyclopedic work, The West and Arab-Islamic Civilization: Enduring Hostility or Reluctant Coexistence? From Mu’tah to Gaza. In this work, he examines the recurring confrontations between the Arab-Islamic and Western worlds and explores whether they reflect deep-seated contradictions that have persisted through the centuries.
Since 2011, Jordan has paid a heavy price for the turmoil that engulfed Syria and whose repercussions extended to its northern borders. The refugee crisis imposed economic and social burdens, while Jordan faced unprecedented security challenges as drug and weapons smuggling networks expanded and armed groups and terrorist organizations exploited the absence of Syrian state authority across large areas of the country.
It is difficult to view the terrorist attack on the church in the village of Hamoud in Karak in isolation from the circumstances Jordan is experiencing and the challenges surrounding it from every direction. The horrific crime, which demonstrated a blatant disregard for innocent lives, raises questions that go beyond the identities of the perpetrators and their immediate motives. It also raises questions about the timing, the political and regional environment in which it occurred, and the parties that might benefit from destabilising Jordan’s domestic front and distracting it with conflicts that serve only those seeking to undermine its security and stability.
The government's approval of the principles for distributing advertisements to the daily newspapers comes to confirm, once again, the relationship linking official institutions and the press, as two arms working on the basis of the national interest.
The region is changing dramatically today. What we are witnessing looks more like the beginning of a shift in the rules that have governed the Middle East since the end of World War II, when the United States became the external power with the greatest influence over regional security, and then took sole leadership of the world after the end of the Cold War.
There is a paradox that is hard to understand in a country that talks a great deal about supporting national industry, encouraging investment, and providing jobs for its sons and daughters, and that speaks at length about plans to raise exports and strengthen self-reliance.
In a quick comparison between His Majesty the King's previous speeches at the United Nations and his address yesterday, the raised ceiling of political language becomes clear, along with a shift from warning of consequences to describing what Jordan sees as already-existing realities, tied directly to Jordanian national security.
Jordan is raising the level of its preparations for the upcoming Jordan European Investment Conference with a clear vision, presenting a portfolio of investment opportunities worth close to 15 billion dollars, distributed across specific sectors, and projects whose feasibility, financing, and implementation mechanisms can be discussed.
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