Category: General

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi on Thursday in New York participated in the UN General Assembly meeting to discuss the dangerous developments in Jerusalem, Gaza and the rest of the occupied Palestinian territories.

The session also went over UN efforts aimed to stop the escalation, the attacks and the illegal Israeli practices, according to a Foreign Ministry statement.

During his speech, Safadi called on the UN to immediately work on protecting its covenant and resolutions, urging the international community to stop attacks on Gaza, achieve a ceasefire and make Israel, the occupying power, stop its breaches of international law, attacks in occupied Jerusalem and its holy sites and in other occupied areas.

The minister also referred to the killing of 65 children and 39 “mothers, sisters, wives and daughters” since Israel started its attacks on Gaza on May 10, reminding the world that at one point during the aggression Israel carried out 120 raids by 52 warplanes on the besieged Gaza strip in 25 minutes, killing innocent people.

Over 11 days, the Israeli attacks left some 75,000 Palestinians in Gaza without shelter, most of them taking refuge in UNRWA schools, the UN agency still unable to secure the delivery of humanitarian aid to them, he added.

The occupation forces changed Jerusalem, the city of peace, into an arena of despair, suppression and injustice, the minister said, adding that Israel keeps provoking the sentiments of some two billion Muslims through its recurrent attacks on Al Aqsa Mosque/Al Haram Al Sharif, whose total area of 144 dunums is a place of worship for Muslims only.

The forced displacement of the residents of the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood is a war crime, Safadi stressed, highlighting that these Palestinian citizens have the right to their homes where they were born and their fathers and grandfathers have lived.

According to international law, the minister stressed, Jerusalemites are protected residents and according to the UN Security Resolution No. 478, the occupation and its courts have no authority over them.

He added that defending the rights of residents of Sheikh Jarrah to their homes is defending international law and “our common humanitarian values”, reiterating that the Kingdom will continue defending the residents and their rights through all available means in coordination with “Palestinian brothers”.

Jordan will continue mobilising its potential to protect the Jerusalemites and Jerusalem, preserve the Islamic and Christian Arab identity of the holy sites in the city, he said.

Maintaining the historical and legal status quo will continue to be a top priority for the custodian, His Majesty King Abdullah, who has repeatedly warned that Jerusalem is “a red line and tampering with Jerusalem is playing with fire”, the foreign minister said.

All efforts of the international community must be joined to end the historical injustice on the Palestinian people, otherwise it will develop into a more dangerous escalation and will keep the entire region prone to conflict, Safadi noted.

He added that the occupation is the source of “all evil” and ending it is the only means to realise peace. “Israel will never enjoy peace as long as it deprives Palestinians of it, and Israel and the entire region will never enjoy peace as long as Palestinians are deprived of it,” he said.

There are currently more than 700,000 settlers in Jerusalem and the rest of the occupied West Bank compared to some 500,000 in 2010 and 370,000 in 2000, Safadi pointed out.

The minister noted that the construction of illegal settlements is being made at an unprecedented pace, which represents a systematic undermining of the two-state solution that the world unanimously approved as the only means to realise a just and comprehensive peace.

Ahead of the session, Safadi participated in a consultation meeting with Arab peers present at the General Assembly to go over efforts and positions aiming to end the Israeli aggression on Gaza and Israeli attacks and violations in Jerusalem and its holy sites.

Following this consultation meeting, Arab foreign ministers met with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.

Source: Embassy of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan

The inspection teams of the Health and Professional Supervision and Inspection Department at the Greater Amman Municipality (GAM) shut down 25 facilities, while 33 others were penalized for violating health and professional standards.

According to a statement issued by the GAM Thursday, the teams inspected 702 facilities yesterday, unveiling a number of health and professional violations.

Source: Jordan News Agency

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has received a fresh contribution of $1.5 million from the government of South Korea towards its emergency food assistance programmes supporting thousands of Syrian refugees in Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey.

WFP has also received US$1 million from the Republic of Korea for the second instalment of its 2020-2021 contribution to Lebanon that is part of a US$3.8 million package WFP received from Korea in December 2020 to provide assistance for Syrians inside their country and in Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey.

In Jordan, food security levels among Syrian refugees living in communities have dropped by more than ten percentage points since 2019; in March 2021, close to a quarter of refugees were food insecure and 60 percent on the edge of food insecurity. Korea’s US$500,000 contribution for Jordan will support WFP in providing monthly assistance to more than half a million vulnerable Syrian refugees and refugees of other nationalities in Jordan.

In Turkey, US$1 million from Korea will help WFP equip Syrian refugees with the skills they need to find job opportunities and become self-reliant through vocational and paid on-the-job training. These funds will also represent a lifeline for approximately 52,000 refugees living in six camps across south-eastern Turkey through a monthly assistance of TRY 120 (US$17) per person.

This assistance is provided through cash-based transfers; through blockchain in the three Syrian refugee camps, and as cash for refugees living in communities across the country. The.

In Lebanon, with US$1 million as the second allocation of ROK’s 2020-2021 contribution, WFP will provide monthly cash assistance for refugees in Lebanon, ensuring that families who have a hard time getting by are provided with the assistance they need to meet their daily nutrition requirements.

“These funds from the Government of Korea could not have been more timely as the COVID-19 pandemic and the consequent economic downturn has pushed hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees in the region deeper into need and desperation, unable to meet their own needs, forcing them to become more dependent on WFP assistances,” said Gordon Craig, WFP’s Deputy Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa. “Life has become an even harder daily struggle for more than 5 million Syrian refugees, who have little or no financial resources.”

The number of vulnerable refugees who lack the basic resources to survive in exile has surged dramatically as a result of the public health emergency. Loss of income has pushed refugee families to the edge. Many are unable to pay their rent and are forced to take on additional debt, cut down on food and medication.

To date, Korea has contributed over US$20 million to WFP’s response to the Syrian regional crisis in the past decade. Korea has become a major donor that has a growing portfolio in the regional crisis.

The Syria response is one of WFP’s largest and most complex emergencies worldwide. Each month, WFP provides food assistance to some 6.5 million Syrians inside and outside Syria. Syrian refugees remain the largest refugee group in the world.

Source: Jordan News Agency

A 28-year-old Palestinian, from the Umm Dar village in the West Bank city of Jenin, died of serious wounds he sustained by Israeli occupation fire, the Al-Razi Hospital said on Thursday.

The martyr, Muntaser Mahmoud Jawabreh, was seriously injured by the occupation bullets during Israeli attacks on the village two days ago, the hospital added.

Source: Jordan News Agency

The increasing amount of sewage sludge requires internationally practiced solutions to utilize the matter for economic purposes, said Mohammad Najjar, Minister of Water and Irrigation in a statement on Thursday.

The minister, during a meeting with Ministers of Agriculture and Environment Khaled Hneifat and Nabil Masarweh, European Union Representative Omar Abu Eid and Food and Agriculture Organization Representative to Jordan Nabil Assaf, said the status quo of the sanitation sector, which serves an increasingly large number of people, calls for highlighting the issue of biosolids, which are solid organic matter recovered from a sewage treatment process.

Sanitation, Najjar pointed out, is a major challenge that demands appropriate solutions in accordance with global reuse experiences, noting that biosolids are a vital economic resource that can be used to achieve economic gains in generating energy and cutting operational costs for some businesses.

The ministry’s strategy focuses on preserving the environment, protecting water resources and public health, and providing advanced services to citizens in the water and sanitation sectors, with an aim of providing an appropriate environment for investments, he stated.

He underscored that the ministry is taking into consideration the use of modern scientific techniques and advanced technological methods to ensure the optimal utilization of water of all kinds and the disposal of sewage sludge, especially treated water from purification plants, as an increasing source of water for the purposes of restricted agriculture.

The Minister of Agriculture pointed to the importance of utilizing treated water and biological treatment wastes in the afforestation project as part of the national afforestation plan, which will have a major environmental impact, underlining the need to expand green areas, combat desertification, and utilize treated water in afforestation, which has an economic impact.

The Minister of Environment highlighted commitment to support any projects implemented in the Badia area and the Water Ministry’s pursuit to develop sustainable environmental solutions. Masarweh also stressed the complementing roles of the three ministries within the government’s plans to improve the environmental, economic and service status quo.

Food and Agriculture Organization Representative to Jordan Nabil Assaf said the UN organization is ready to put in place all capabilities and expertise to make the Jordanian government’s efforts succeed through the relevant ministries.

Source: Jordan News Agency

On the 11th consecutive day of the Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian woman was killed and other citizens were injured, Palestinian sources said on Thursday.

The occupation warplanes fired a number of rockets at the western line of Khan Yunis in the southern part of the coastal enclave, killing a woman and wounding others, the sources added.

Also today, Israeli aircrafts bombed several houses in Jabalia refugee camp, Sabra neighborhood, Al-Mashtal area, an agricultural land at the entrance to Dawah Street in Nuseirat, Al-Bureij, in addition to a home east of Jabalia, leaving a number of Gazans injured, including women and children.

Source: Jordan News Agency

Official data of the Civil Aviation Regulatory commission (CARC) showed a sharp decrease in the passenger movement through Queen Alia International Airport (QAIA) by 93% since March 17 to the end of 2020, after anti-Covid-19 restrictions issued by the government on air navigation domestically came into effect to prevent the virus outbreak.

Over the March-December period 2020, some 532,000 passengers arrived and departed through QAIA, while the airport received a total of 9426,000 in-bound and outbound flights in the same period, compared to about 7,327 million passengers and 64,977,000 flights for the 2019 comparison period, the CARC data revealed.

As for air cargo, the QAIA handled 49,701 tons last year, compared with 105,402, tons in 2019, a drop of about 53%.

Meanwhile since beginning of January to March 16, 2020, the CARC said the airport saw a slight decrease in passenger traffic by 5%, as QAIA received about 1.518 million passengers, against some 1.597 million for the 2019 comparison period, announcing the airport also received 14,792 flights, compared to 14,764.

Source: Jordan News Agency

Lower House rejected the draft law amending the 2021 Money Exchange Business Law, during its session held on Wednesday, headed by its Speaker Abdel Moneim Awdat and attended by the Cabinet members.

In their debate, the lawmakers referred to MP Abdul Karim al-Daghmi, who said the new money exchange legislature “jeopardizes investment, and stiffens penalties on investors.”

In his response to the lawmakers’ interventions, Mahmoud Kharabsheh, Minister of State for Legal Affairs, said the bill “does not aim to discourage investment, but rather works to stimulate Jordan’s investment environment. The draft law is for regulatory purposes only.”

The minister said the amended bill bans issuing remittances by unlicensed exchange offices, adding that the government supports investment promotion in Jordan, but failed to convince the lawmakers of the government’s perspective.

Source: Jordan News Agency

The Jordanian Hashemite Charity Organization (JHCO) delivered a humanitarian aid convoy to Palestine on Wednesday, consisting of three trucks carrying medical and relief supplies provided by Morocco, as part of its national relief campaign to Palestine.

In a press statement, JHCO’s Secretary General, Hussein Shibli, said the organization continues to prepare and send humanitarian aid convoys as part of its aid drive, in coordination with the Jordanian Armed Forces – the Arab Army (JAF), to meet the humanitarian needs in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Speaking at remarks made to see off the convoy, the Moroccan ambassador to Jordan, Sidi Muhammad Naciri, said: The aid comes according to directives of King Mohammed VI to send relief assistance to the Palestinian people.

In coordination with JHCO, the envoy said the two Moroccan aid planes landed in Jordan last Sunday, adding that the convoy was funneled in support of the Palestinian people.

Source: Jordan News Agency

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday said that political dialogue between the Russian Federation and Jordan on international challenges is continuous and multifaceted, including at the leadership level.

Putin made the remarks as he received the credentials of the new Jordanian ambassador to Russia, Khalid Shawabkah, as the Kingdom’s ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary.

During the ceremony at the Kremlin, Putin stressed that Jordan and Russia see eye-to-eye on many issues, mainly on issues related to the settlement in the Middle East, indicating that both countries “have a good opportunity” to expand bilateral cooperation in many areas.

Regarding the current developments in the occupied Palestinian territories, the Russian president emphasized that Moscow deems it necessary to end the violence and actively seek a solution based on the relevant Security Council resolutions.

Source: Jordan News Agency