Contents:-
I. INTRODUCTION
II. LAND AND RESOURCES
A. Climate
B. Natural Resources
C. Plants and Animals
III. POPULATION
A. Population Characteristics
B. Principal Cities
C. Religion and Language
D. Education
E. Libraries and Museums
IV. ECONOMY
A. Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishing
B. Mining
C. Manufacturing
D. Tourism
E. Currency and Banking
F. Commerce and Trade
G. Transport
H. Communications
V. GOVERNMENT
A. Executive and Legislature
B. Political Parties
C. Judiciary
D. Local Government
E. Health and Welfare
F. Defence
G. International Organizations
VI. HISTORY
A. Transjordan Independence
B. The Arab League and Jordan
C. Arab Problems and Disunity
D. Peace in the Early 1960s
E. Growing Tensions and War with Israel
F. The Yom Kippur War and After
G. The Gulf War
H. Peace Agreement
I. After Hussein
Description:-
I INTRODUCTION
Jordan (country) (in Arabic, al-Mamlakah al-Urdunniyah al-Hashemiyah), officially Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, kingdom in the Middle East, bordered on the north by Syria, on the east by Iraq and Saudi Arabia, on the south by Saudi Arabia and the Gulf of Aqaba, and on the west by Israel and the West Bank. The area of Jordan is 89,556 sq km (34,578 sq mi) since an exchange of territory with Saudi Arabia in 1965. Amman is the capital and largest city of Jordan.
II LAND AND RESOURCES
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| Ibrid, Jordon |
A Climate
The climate of Jordan is predominantly Mediterranean, marked by sharp seasonal variations in both temperature and precipitation. Temperatures below freezing are not unknown in January, the coldest month, but the average winter temperature is above 7.2° C (45° F). The areas below sea level are warm in winter and very hot in summer. In the Jordan Valley summer temperatures may reach 48.9° C (120° F) in August, the hottest month, compared with the average summer temperature in Amman of 25.6° C (78° F). Precipitation is confined largely to the winter season and ranges from about 660 mm (26 in) in the north-western corner to less than 127 mm (5 in) in the extreme east.
B Natural Resources
Jordan is endowed with limited but important mineral resources. A small oilfield produces around 800 barrels per day (300,000 in 1996) for domestic consumption, equivalent to 1 per cent of the country’s domestic needs; Jordan has depended on Iraq for oil imports. High-grade phosphate deposits provide Jordan with its largest export. The salt resources of the Dead Sea are exploited to produce phosphates and potash.
Jordan’s attempts to overcome its shortage of water have been adversely affected by its political difficulties and a rapidly rising population. Attempts to increase water availability have included the diversion of the River Yarmuk to irrigate the northern part of the Ghor Valley. Israel’s use of the underground aquifers that it shares with Jordan has been a major barrier to a peace agreement between the two countries. In 1982 Israel’s national water carrier incorporated West Bank supplies into its network; the country eventually relied on it for one quarter of its water supplies, using 70 per cent of the available water.
C Plants and Animals
Because much of Jordan consists of desert and dry plains, plant life is not abundant. Grassland and wooded areas are found in the Jabal 'Ajlun district between Amman and the Syrian border. In these regions the trees include oak, ilex, olive, Aleppo pine, and palm. Wildlife includes the hyena, hyrax, gazelle, ibex, fox, partridge, mongoose, and mole rat.
III POPULATION
The population of Jordan is almost entirely Arab. The only sizeable ethnic minorities in the country are the Circassians and the Armenians; each group accounts for less than 1 per cent of the population. More than 50 per cent of Jordan’s population are Palestinian Arabs, originally from the area of Israel and the West Bank. Jordan’s population is approximately 74 per cent urban; nomads and semi-nomads make up around 5 per cent of the population.
A Population Characteristics
Jordan has a population (2001) of 5,153,378, yielding an average population density of 58 people per sq km (149 per sq mi). Average life expectancy at birth in 2001 was 75 years for men and 80 years for women, while the infant mortality rate was 20 per 1,000 live births; the annual average rate of population increase was 3 per cent.
B Principal Cities
Amman, the capital and largest city of Jordan, grew in population from a census estimate of 321,000 in 1966 to nearly 648,000 in 1979 (according to the 1979 census), largely because of the influx of West Bank refugees in the wake of the Six-Day War with Israel in 1967; its population is now 1,187,000 (1995 estimate). Other important cities include Az Zarqa, population 421,000 (1994 estimate), and Irbid, 281,000 (1994). Al ‘Aqabah, the only seaport on the Gulf of Aqaba, has a population of about 41,900 (1989 estimate).
C Religion and Language
Islam is the state religion. The great majority of the Jordanian people are Sunni Muslims. Shiite Muslims form a small minority. Christians, about one third of whom belong to the Greek Orthodox Church, make up about 8 per cent of the population. Arabic the official language.
D Education
Jordan has made significant strides in education in recent decades, despite the influx of hundreds of thousands of refugees and the very large share of the national budget assigned to the armed forces. The literacy rate in 2001 was 100 per cent. Public education at the primary level is free and compulsory beginning at the age of five. At the secondary level, about 80 per cent of boys and 78 per cent of girls go to school.
In 1997-1998 the annual enrolment was about 1,121,866 pupils attending primary schools, 155,008 students attending vocational and secondary schools, and 112,959 students enrolled in institutions of higher education. The country has three major universities: the University of Jordan (founded 1962) and Mu’tah University (1981), both in Amman, and Jordan University of Science and Technology (1976), in Irbid. Other facilities for higher education in Jordan include the Statistical Training Centre and institutes for the study of agriculture, banking, social work, and public administration. In 1997, 6.8 per cent of the country’s gross national product (GNP) was spent of education.
E Libraries and Museums
The major libraries of Jordan are the Public Library of Amman, the University of Jordan Library, and the British Council Library. Major museums housing historical, religious, and archaeological treasures are the Jordan Archaeological Museum, the Mosaic Gallery, and the Folklore Museum.
IV ECONOMY
Underdeveloped industrially, poor in water and other natural resources, and with the major part of its territory too arid for agriculture, Jordan is not economically self-supporting and has to rely heavily on foreign aid (primarily from oil-rich Arab countries). Additional burdens were placed on the economy after the 1967 Israeli occupation of the West Bank, which contained nearly half of Jordan’s agricultural land and a sizeable percentage of its small industries. Unemployment also increased owing to the subsequent influx of unemployed refugees.
During the 1980s Jordan’s economy became increasingly dependent on the overland transport of goods from the port of Al ‘Aqabah to Iraq and on remittances from Jordanian workers employed in the Gulf states. Both these sources of revenue were affected by Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in August 1990, and by the subsequent expulsion of workers from Kuwait and the United Nations embargo on the shipment of goods to and from Iraq. Despite the embargo, however, Jordan was importing 70,000 barrels of oil a day from Iraq throughout the early 1990s with tacit UN agreement, and was an important conduit for circumventing sanctions. The United States was willing to offer substantial inducements to persuade Jordan to reduce its assistance to Iraq, and in early 1996 negotiations began for a rapprochement with Saudi Arabia, which had previously been Jordan’s main oil supplier.
In the mid-1990s Jordan was shouldering an external debt equal to 140 per cent of its gross domestic product (GDP). This was an improvement on the previous decade, when its debts were more than 200 per cent of its GDP. In 1995 the International Monetary Fund (IMF) extended assistance to Jordan and rescheduled its debt repayments.
The GNP of Jordan in 1999 was around US$7,717 million (World Bank figure), or US$1,630 per capita. The annual budget in 1998 included revenues of US$2,005 million and expenditure of some US$2,647 million. The estimated inflation rate was 5 per cent in the mid-1990s, falling to 2.7 per cent in 1996.
Of the labour force of 1,398,262 (1999), around 25 per cent is employed in industry; 69 per cent in services; and 6 per cent in agriculture.
A Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishing
The proportion of the labour force engaged in agriculture declined from 37 per cent to 15 per cent between 1965 and 1990. In 1999 the sector contributed 2.4 per cent to GDP. Only about 3 per cent of the land is arable, and only a small percentage of the cultivated area is irrigated. With so much of Jordan’s agriculture dependent on sparse annual rainfall, annual production figures fluctuate widely. Maize, wheat, and barley are the major grain crops, but production is not sufficient to meet the needs of the country. The West Bank accounted for an estimated 20 to 25 per cent of the grain, 70 per cent of the fruit, and 40 per cent of the vegetable produce of Jordan before the 1967 war with Israel.
Production, in tonnes, of wheat in 2000 was about 29,150; barley, 10,000; and potatoes, 93,000. Crops such as olives, almonds, figs, grapes, apricots, cucumbers, potatoes, and tomatoes are grown for export. Even in the best agricultural years food imports exceed food exports. In 2000 sheep, the most important livestock animals, totalled about 1.60 million; cattle, about 55,000; goats, 630,000; and poultry, 25 million.
B Mining
Annual production of phosphates in 1999 totalled 6 million tonnes; 0.28 billion cu m (10 billion cu ft) of natural gas were also produced.
C Manufacturing
Jordan lost about one fifth of its industrial production as a result of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank. The soap, olive oil, and cigarette industries of the West Bank were small, however, and produced almost entirely for the domestic market. The major industries, including the production of phosphates, cement, and hydroelectric power, and oil-refining, are concentrated east of the River Jordan. Industrialization, starting from a small base in the early 1960s, proceeded rapidly, even since the 1967 war, with the setting up of textile, pharmaceutical, food processing, sugar, paper, household-goods, and glass industries on the East Bank. Local and foreign-owned firms have been encouraged through fiscal concessions from the government and high protective tariffs.
D Tourism
Tourism is an important source of foreign exchange revenue; in 1993 about 3.2 million tourists visited Jordan and spent more than US$563 million in income. In 1994 tourism yielded US$582 million in receipts. This represented a recovery over the early 1990s when there was a serious drop in tourism after the Gulf War. The peace agreement with Israel and the opening of a land crossing into Israel was also expected to boost tourist numbers considerably, although relations with Israel deteriorated in the late 1990s.
E Currency and Banking
The monetary unit of Jordan is the Jordanian dinar of 1,000 fil (0.71 dinars equal US$1; 2001). The Central Bank of Jordan (established 1964) administers all funds, including sterling assets and currency commitments, and there are 20 licensed banks, and a stock exchange in Amman.
F Commerce and Trade
The principal exports of Jordan, apart from agricultural produce shipped to neighbouring countries, are phosphates, clothing, textiles, and pharmaceuticals. The principal imports are crude oil, food, transport equipment, machinery, chemicals, iron and steel, and electrical and electronic items. Jordan’s principal trading partners are Iraq, Saudi Arabia, India, Germany, the United Kingdom, the United States, the West Bank, and Japan.
In 1999 the total value of Jordanian imports was US$3,700 million compared with total exports of US$1,780 million.
G Transport
Jordan has a modern road network of some 6,640 km (4,126 mi). All major cities are linked by asphalt roads, and small towns by oiled or dirt roads. In 1997 there were about 50 passenger cars per 1,000 people. The only rail lines run from the Syrian border through Amman to Maan, where branches run south to Saudi Arabia and south-west to the port of Al ‘Aqabah, a total of about 670 km (416 mi). The air terminal in Amman is served by Alia-Royal Jordanian Airline and other international lines.
H Communications
In 1997 there were about 73 telephones per 1,000 people, 1,660,000 radios, and 500,000 television sets in use in Jordan. There are eight television broadcast stations. Publications include 4 daily newspapers with a combined circulation of about 250,000.
V GOVERNMENT
Under the 1951 constitution (approved in 1952), Jordan is a constitutional monarchy. The present monarch is King Abdullah II of Jordan, who was sworn in on February 7, 1999, just before the death of his father King Hussein Ibn Talal.
A Executive and Legislature
The Jordanian monarch is chief executive and head of state and shares executive power with a prime minister and other Cabinet members who are responsible to the parliament. The monarch may declare war, conclude peace, and convene, adjourn, and suspend the lower house of the legislature.
The legislature is bicameral with a Senate and House of Representatives. A measure passed in 1986 called for enlargement of the House of Representatives to 142 members, with 71 representing East Bank constituencies, 60 representing West Bank districts, and 11 elected by West Bank Palestinians living in East Bank refugee camps. After Jordan abandoned its claim to represent the Palestinians, the electoral laws were again revised, and 80 legislative seats were contested in the 1989 election. Nine seats are reserved for Christians, six for Bedouin, and three for Circassians.
The king and main political movements endorsed a national charter legalizing political parties (banned in 1963) in return for acceptance of the constitution and monarchy. However, the November 1993 and October 1997 elections saw most members elected for tribal constituencies. A Senate of 40 members is appointed by the monarch subject to House approval.
B Political Parties
The ban on political parties imposed before the elections held in July 1963 was not lifted until 1991. Communists, Islamic fundamentalists, and other political groups played an influential role in the 1989 and 1993 parliamentary elections.
C Judiciary
Jordan, like many Arab countries, has a civil and a religious court system. Magistrate courts, the lowest in the civil system, hear minor criminal and civil cases; the more important cases go to courts of first instance. Decisions of these courts are subject to review by courts of appeal. The supreme court, the court of cassation, presides over cases against the state, hears appeals, and interprets the law.
Muslim religious courts administering shari’ah law rule on marriage, divorce, interdiction, wills, and guardianship cases for citizens desiring Muslim interpretation rather than civil decisions. Non-Muslim minorities may resort to religious courts of their own traditions in personal status cases. The nomadic tribes may bring cases to tribal courts.
D Local Government
Jordan is divided into eight administrative districts, or governorates. Three former governorates, comprising the West Bank, were occupied by Israel in 1967; their administrative links with Jordan were severed by King Hussein in 1988. Each of the other five districts is headed by a governor appointed by the monarch. The nomadic population is administered separately.
E Health and Welfare
In 1997 there were 602 people per doctor, while in 2001 Jordan had an infant mortality rate of 20 deaths per 1,000 live births. In 1998 10 per cent of government expenditure was spent on health care.
F Defence
The monarch is commander-in-chief of the armed forces. There is a selective conscription system in operation. In 1999 the armed forces consisted of 103,880 active troops and 35,000 reserves. Of the total, the army had a total complement of 90,000; the air force, 13,400; and the navy, 480. Jordan is the recipient of substantial military aid from the United States. In early 1996 a US$300 million package was agreed which aims to provide the country with 16 F-16 fighter planes and 50 tanks.
G International Organizations
Jordan is a member of the UN, the Arab League, and the Organization of the Islamic Conference.
VI HISTORY
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| Petra, Jordon |
A Transjordan Independence
The liberation of Jordan from Turkish sovereignty was achieved in September 1918, at the end of World War I, by joint action of British and Arab troops. After the war, Jordan, along with the territory constituting present-day Israel, was awarded to the United Kingdom as a mandate by the League of Nations. The British in 1922 divided the mandate into two parts, designating all lands west of the River Jordan as Palestine and those east of the river as Transjordan.
In 1921 Transjordan was placed under the nominal rule of Abdullah ibn Husein as Emir. Abdullah was a member of the Hashemi (Hashemite) dynasty of Arabia. His father was Husein Ibn Ali, the Sharif of Mecca, who had proclaimed himself King of the Hejaz (now part of Saudi Arabia) in 1919. His brother, Faisal, was proclaimed King of Iraq (also a British mandate) in 1921. In February 1928 Transjordan obtained qualified independence in a treaty with Britain.
The government of Transjordan cooperated with Britain during World War II, making its territory available as a base for British operations against pro-Axis forces which had gained control of the government of Iraq. In 1945 Transjordan became a member of the Arab League, an organization created for the purpose of coordinating Arab policy in international affairs and of curbing Jewish nationalist aspirations in Palestine. The British government relinquished its mandate over Transjordan on March 22, 1946. By the terms of a treaty concluded by the two nations on that date, Transjordan received recognition as a sovereign independent state. The treaty also established an Anglo-Transjordanian military and mutual-assistance alliance, with the British securing military bases and other installations in the country in exchange for an agreement to train and equip the Transjordanian army. Abdullah ibn Husein was proclaimed King the following May.
B The Arab League and Jordan
The Jordanian army, known at that time as the Arab Legion, joined with the armed forces of the other nations of the Arab League in a concerted attack in May 1948 on the newly formed state of Israel. During the war the Arab Legion occupied sections of central Palestine, including the Old City of Jerusalem. Transjordan signed an armistice with Israel on April 3, 1949.
On April 24, 1950, despite strong opposition from other Arab League members, King Abdullah formally merged all of Arab-held Palestine with Transjordan and granted citizenship to West Bank residents. From that point on, the prefix “trans” (across) became inaccurate, and the kingdom has since been called Jordan. The word “Hashemite” refers to Hashim, the grandfather of the prophet Muhammad, from whom the Jordanian royal house claims direct descent.
King Abdullah was assassinated on July 20, 1951, by a Palestinian opposed to Jordanian tolerance of Israel, and was succeeded by his son Talal I in September. On August 11, 1952, the Jordanian parliament deposed Talal, who had a mental disorder, and elevated his son as Hussein I the same day. A regency council acted for the new king until he reached the age of 18 in May 1953.
Armed Jordanian and Israeli detachments were involved in frequent frontier clashes during the early 1950s. Major sources of friction were Israeli irrigation and hydroelectric schemes that would have reduced the volume of the Jordan waters, considered vital to Jordanian development.
C Arab Problems and Disunity
Jordan became a member of the United Nations on December 14, 1955, and during the latter half of the following year Jordanian and Israeli UN delegates registered bitter and increasingly frequent charges of border violations and armed raids.
By the provisions of a ten-year pact signed in January 1957, Egypt, Syria, and Saudi Arabia agreed to furnish Jordan with an annual subsidy of US$36 million. The pact was designed to free Jordan from dependence on Western nations, especially the United Kingdom, the policies of which were considered anti-Arab and pro-Israeli. The Jordanian premier and other leftists in the government were dismissed by the king in April, however, and the following June, Syria and Egypt revoked the aid pact.
In February 1958, two weeks after Egypt and Syria merged to form the United Arab Republic (UAR), the more conservative governments of Jordan and Iraq announced the formation of the Arab Federation. When the Iraqi government was overthrown in July, however, largely as a result of UAR propaganda and intrigue, the federation was dissolved and Jordan severed diplomatic relations with the UAR. Although ties were restored in August 1959, relations between Hussein and President Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt remained strained. When the Jordanian premier, Hazza Majuli, was assassinated in August 1960, the king charged Nasser with responsibility.
D Peace in the Early 1960s
During 1961 and 1962 Jordan was relatively free of domestic political strife and of anti-government agitation by the volatile population of Palestinian refugees. One sign of growing strength on the part of the throne was the general acceptance, and even popularity, of the king’s second marriage, in May 1961, to Antoinette Avril Gardiner of Britain, who was granted the title Princess Muna. They were divorced in May 1972.
After the elections of December 1962, political parties, which had been banned during the height of Jordanian-UAR tensions, were allowed to reform. Foreign relations were less relaxed, however. In September 1961 Jordan recognized the new regime in Syria, which had just seceded from the UAR; Nasser retaliated by breaking diplomatic relations with Jordan.
After the fall of one prime minister and the resignation of another in the spring of 1963, political parties were again banned. Elections in July installed a new Cabinet and inaugurated another two-year period of relative domestic tranquillity. Diplomatic relations with the UAR (Egypt) were restored in 1964 as a result of mounting pressure for Arab League unity against Israel. Renewed clashes with Israel over Jordanian water rights led to an Arab summit conference in Cairo in September 1964, which Hussein attended.
E Growing Tensions and War with Israel
Relations with the Baathist regime in Syria deteriorated in the mid-1960s. Despite calls for unity, Arab nations tended to polarize into an extremist camp including Syria, Egypt, and Iraq, and a moderate group including Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Tunisia. For a time the Jordanian frontier with Syria was as troubled as that with Israel. Arab guerrilla fighters of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), infiltrating Jordan from Syria, launched terrorist attacks against Israel for which Jordan suffered Israeli reprisals. In July 1966 Jordan withdrew support from the PLO, but a massive Israeli raid in November created intense pressure on Hussein to back the Palestinians. When he refused, the PLO called for his overthrow and clashes on the Syrian border increased.
Arab-Israeli tensions were meanwhile mounting steadily. When war seemed imminent, Hussein, in an unprecedented gesture of Arab solidarity, flew to Cairo and signed a defence treaty with Nasser on May 30, 1967. This action greatly enhanced his position with the refugees, but it also committed Jordan to active involvement when the Six-Day War broke out on June 5. On June 7, its air force destroyed and the West Bank occupied, Jordan accepted a UN ceasefire.
Jordanian post-war diplomacy was aimed at reinforcing ties with the West and achieving an Israeli withdrawal from the occupied area. Hussein took no unilateral initiatives towards a peace settlement, however, and Egypt, Algeria, and Syria meanwhile hardened their anti-Israel position with calls for a sustained guerrilla offensive against Israel, which was staged from bases in Jordan.
The situation in Jordan reached the point of civil war in September 1970, when Palestinian guerrillas known as “Black September“ supported by Syria fought the elite Jordanian Bedouin troops in Amman and other areas of northern Jordan. After heavy casualties, a ceasefire agreement was reached requiring a number of concessions from Hussein. In 1971, however, Hussein ordered Prime Minister Wasif Tal to take military action against the guerrillas, and the movement was completely crushed. Arab reaction against Jordan was strongly hostile. On November 28, while attending a meeting of the Arab League in Cairo, Wasif Tal was assassinated by guerrilla members of the Black September organization.
In 1972 Hussein proposed the creation of a federated Arab state comprising Jordan and the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Most Arab governments and the Palestinian organizations were unanimously opposed to such a state, however.
In February 1973 King Hussein visited the United States and received promises of continued US economic and military aid. In September, Hussein granted amnesty to 1,500 political prisoners, including some 750 Palestinian commandos; the move was viewed as a peace gesture following meetings with leaders of Egypt and Syria that had brought about reconciliation among the three countries.
F The Yom Kippur War and After
In the short, indecisive conflict that began on October 6, 1973, and that became known as the Yom Kippur War, Jordan contributed some token forces to assist Syrian troops fighting against Israel in the Golan Heights region. After the war the PLO gained standing in the Middle East, and in 1974 Jordan reluctantly recognized it as the sole representative of the Palestinian people, thus relinquishing any claim to the Israeli-occupied West Bank. In return, Jordan was promised economic and military aid from other Arab nations. In November, King Hussein dissolved parliament so it could be reconstituted without representatives of the West Bank. Elections for the new House of Representatives were postponed indefinitely in early 1976.
In 1975 Jordan established closer ties with Syria, mainly in order to guard against a possible attack by Israel. King Hussein refused to accept the 1978 US-sponsored Camp David agreements on the Middle East, because they failed to provide for Israeli withdrawal from all occupied Arab territories; in 1979 he denounced Egypt’s separate peace with Israel. Jordan supported Iraq in the Iran-Iraq War that broke out in 1980, a policy that strained relations with the pro-Iranian government of Syria. In January 1984 parliament held its first regular session in ten years, and limited parliamentary elections were held that March.
In July 1988, in response to months of demonstrations by Palestinians in the Israeli-held West Bank, Hussein ceded to the PLO most Jordanian claims to the territory. Islamic fundamentalists showed significant strength in Jordan’s first general election in 22 years, held in November 1989.
G The Gulf War
After Iraq invaded Kuwait in August 1990, King Hussein unsuccessfully sought to play a mediating role. Meanwhile, a flood of refugees from the Persian Gulf region, combined with the worldwide embargo on trade with Iraq, severely damaged the Jordanian economy. Jordan’s apparent tilt towards Iraq during the Gulf War strained relations with the United States, Saudi Arabia, and other Arab states. An influx of Jordanians who had fled the Gulf War from Kuwait and Iraq increased the country’s unemployment rate to 30 per cent. The falling worth of the Jordanian dinar also added to the country’s economic problems.
A joint Jordanian-Palestinian delegation took part in the comprehensive Middle East peace talks that began in October 1991. Also in 1991, King Hussein lifted a ban on political parties, paving the way for future elections. The 1993 multi-party parliamentary elections, Jordan’s first since 1956, resulted in a loss of seats for conservative religious parties and the election of a woman to the parliament for the first time.
H Peace Agreement
In July 1994 Hussein signed a peace agreement with Israel, ending 46 years of war and strained relations between the two countries. The Jordan-Israeli agreement promoted economic cooperation and pledged further negotiations. It also paved the way for military aid worth US$300 million from the United States. A full peace treaty was concluded in October 1994, angering many Palestinians who resented its clause calling the king the “custodian” of Islamic holy shrines in Jerusalem.
In January 1996, the visit of Prince Saud al-Faisal marked the first official Saudi Arabian visit to Jordan since the 1990-1991 Gulf War hostilities, and the government closed down 15 of the major sanctions-breaking companies in Jordan. The king had attended a meeting of the opposition Iraqi National Congress in London in late 1995, and soon after welcomed two high-profile Iraqi defectors, Saddam Hussein’s sons-in-law. This all seemed to pave the way for the re-entry of Jordan into friendly relations with the Arab Gulf States, and the resumption of Saudi oil supplies. The pipeline from Saudi Arabia was flushed in readiness, but it was uncertain whether the king would consider the inducements offered adequate to decline the substantially discounted Iraqi oil.
Relations with Israel deteriorated in 1996, following an Israeli punitive bombing raid on Hezbollah bases in Lebanon that resulted in 100 civilian deaths. In September Palestinians and Israelis clashed over the opening of an archaeological tunnel under the Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, and 70 people died. King Hussein warned the Israelis that treaties with them were threatened by Israel’s failure to fulfil its obligations to Palestinians as required by the 1993 Oslo agreement.
Jordan also moved further against Iraq in 1996 and allowed a US air base to be set up on Jordanian territory to monitor the no-fly zone in southern Iraq. In return, contracts were concluded for Jordan to lease US military aircraft and other equipment. This and other anti-Iraq actions—such as the encouragement of Iraqi defections—alienated Jordan’s business community. Much of Jordan’s manufactured goods have been exported to Iraq, and a US$1,000 million debt owed by Iraq led Jordan to cut half its exports to that country.
In March 1997 a Jordanian soldier fired at Israeli schoolgirls on an outing at the Jordanian-Israeli border, killing seven of them. Earlier, relations between the two countries had deteriorated after the election of Israel’s right-wing prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, whom King Hussein had accused of destroying the Middle East peace process.
In the parliamentary election held in October 1997, pro-government tribal candidates triumphed, although the election was boycotted by Islamic fundamentalist and other opposition parties.
At the fourth Arab-Israeli Economic Meeting held in Qatar in November, Jordan, together with Kuwait, Yemen, Tunisia, and Oman, agreed to participate, although with downgraded delegations.
I After Hussein
Terminally ill with cancer, Hussein appointed his son Abdullah as Crown Prince in January 1999 in place of his brother Hassan. Hussein died on February 7, 1999, ending a reign of 46 years. His state funeral was attended by a great number of world leaders, including US President Bill Clinton, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, President Chirac of France, Yasir Arafat, and most other heads of state from the region, testifying to his personal importance in the Middle East. His son, sworn in as King Abdullah II hours before his death, acceded to the throne.
Following the new monarch’s recommendations, the government clamped down on resident followers of the militant Islamic movement Hamas, closing its offices in Amman in August 1999 and expelling its leaders in November, which effectively ended the group’s activities in the country. Six Islamic militants were sentenced to death in September 2000 for their membership of the outlawed organization Al-Qa’idah. Sixteen others received prison sentences.
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