Recently fired Jordanian Parliament member Osama Al-Ajarmeh for criticizing King Abdullah was arrested.
Tensions are rising between the Jordanian royals and the Bedouin tribes, which are in support on Prince Hamzah, the king's half brother who was previously arrested for plotting against the king.
Official Jordanian media said on Sunday that the Jordanian military court would next week begin the trials of a former royal court chief and a member of the royal family, on charges of inciting opposition to the regime.
The prosecution last week referred to the court the case of Bassem Awadallah, former royal court chief and minister of finance, who played a key role in the campaign to implement economic liberalization, and Sharif Hassan Zaid, a relative of the king.
The two were arrested in early April when the former crown prince, Hamza, was placed under house arrest on charges that he had allied with foreign officials and plotted to undermine the stability of Jordan, a U.S. ally in the Middle East.
However, the proceedings against Prince Hamza were later canceled when he swore allegiance to King Abdullah.
Two prominent politicians familiar with the case told Reuters news agency, after asking not to be identified, that it was revealed during investigations that Awadallah is one of the closest economic advisers to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
They added that Amman refused Riyadh's request to extradite him, without giving further details.
What happened revealed the first serious rift in the Hashemite family that has ruled for years.
The Jordanian street is stormy and demanding to know what happened to Prince Hamza, who was accused of conspiring against King Abdullah. Prince Hamza was last seen in public about a month ago and his traces have since disappeared. He is much loved on Jordanian Street, who fears he is in solitary confinement and house arrest.
The question that preoccupies Jordanians these days is where Prince Hamza, the half-brother of King Abdullah, who has completely disappeared from the public eye, has gone. He was last seen in public on April 11, while attending a ceremony marking the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the Hashemite Kingdom, since his traces have disappeared and he has also stopped appearing on social media.
King Abdullah has announced that he is at home with his family, but Jordanian residents are convinced that Prince Hamza is under house arrest and that Jordanian security officials are preventing him from making any contact with the world in an attempt to bury the conspiracy case against King Abdullah and remove it from the media agenda.
King Abdullah accused Prince Hamza of conspiring against him to undermine the security and stability situation in Jordan along with internal and external elements. He announced that he would resolve the issue within the royal family. Prince Hassan, the uncle of King Abdullah and Prince Hamza, was summoned to the mediation and Prince Hamza was forced to sign a letter in which he expressed loyalty to the king, his son the regent and the constitution of Jordan.
In contrast, Jordanian intelligence officials, who have long been involved in conspiracy against King Abdullah, have themselves arrested 18 suspects involved in conspiracy against the king, most of them Bedouin tribesmen in southern Jordan, where Prince Hamza is highly popular and frequently visited.
After the investigation, it was decided to prosecute all the suspects in the Special Security Court, but following pressure from the Bedouin tribes on the royal palace and King Abdullah's desire to buy their hearts and gain their trust, the king ordered the release of 16 detainees on the grounds of Ramadan. Will not be prosecuted.
The two who remain in custody are the senior figures to whom King Abdullah attributes a very large involvement in the affair, they were the living and fermenting spirit against the king. They acted on behalf of Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman, over his desire to promote President Trump's "deal of the century" and buy Saudi Arabia a "foothold" on the Temple Mount. This is because Jordan is the guardian of the holy places in Jerusalem according to the 1994 peace agreement between Israel and Jordan ("Wadi Arava" agreement).
These are Bassem Awadallah, former head of the Royal Bureau and Sheriff Hassan Ben-Zeid, a member of the royal family, both businessmen who have business activities in the UAE and are very close to the Saudi Crown Prince.
Prince Hamza, suspected of taking advantage of the difficult economic situation and popular outrage to carry out a coup against the king with the help of the two, has completely disappeared from the horizon. His mother, Queen Nur, also disappeared. This may have been done with consent or lack of choice. King Abdullah wants to hide the affair from Jordanian public opinion and also does not want any confrontation with Saudi Arabia following the involvement of Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salma and his close ties with two of the conspirators.
But, the Jordanian street is not willing to give up, Prince Hamza is very popular on the Jordanian street. Much more than King Abdullah and current heir apparent Hussein bin Abdullah.
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GOLAN HEIGHTS, Israel – Near the end of the Six-Day War, attention shifted away from Jerusalem. About 120 miles away, Israeli troops took control of the Golan Heights. Over the last 50 years, that battle has proven to be one of the most strategic of the war.
"Whoever sits on the Golan Heights totally dominates this whole region," said Middle East expert and author of Inside the Middle East Avi Melamed.
That's in part because of its proximity to the Sea of Galilee. The Golan Heights shares borders with Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon, with Damascus just 40 miles away.
For decades Syria controlled the Golan Heights. Here on the high ground overlooking the Sea of Galilee, Syrian artillery and snipers shot and shelled the Israelis below. Children grew up running to bomb shelters and residents lived under the constant threat of attack.
Overlooking the Sea of Galilee, Melamed explained why it's so important to understand what happened in the Golan during the Six-Day War.
"So, all along the line of this cliff were Syrian bunkers and military posts and cannons and artilleries. The communities beneath the Golan Heights were at the total mercy of the Syrians," Melamed said.
"Now, you have to remember, the Sea of Galilee is the biggest freshwater body in Israel, providing something like 25 to 30 percent of the water consumption or the fresh water consumption in Israel," Melamed continued.
"In 1948 [and] until 1967 what happened was that the Syrians occupied some strategic areas. One is the area where the Jordan River feeds from the north and enters the Sea of Galilee. The other area was the strip that you see right beneath us actually rubbing shoulders with the water.
"The major result of that was an enormously increasing pressure on Israel – mostly in the context of the water and use of water," Melamed said.
Israel faced a literal uphill battle against the Syrian army – a rocky slope that rose 1,700 feet from the Sea of Galilee. Israel captured the Golan plateau during the last two days of the Six-Day War.
Just one month after the war, Yehuda Harel and his family were among the first Israelis who moved to the Golan Heights. They established the first community there called Merom Golan (the height of the Golan).
"We were afraid that Syria will come back and again they will shell the valley and try to take the water, to take the Jordan," Harel recalled. "We decide[d] to make the first kibbutz in the Golan Heights to convince the government we'll stay here.
"We got the permission from the army to get inside the Golan Heights because it was a military area. And we got a job from them to collect cows that were wild in the area," he continued. They wound up living in what had been the living quarters for Syrian Army officers.
"We are very near to Qunietra [on the Syrian-Israeli border]. I mean about a hundred meters from Qunietra. And we are near to the quarter; we used to live here for almost five years. This is the house that we, with another three families, lived in this house," Harel said.
Eventually, the community moved across the ridge and still farms near the border.
Today, close to 50,000 people – more than 25,500 Israelis and 22,000 Druze – live on the Golan Heights, now known for its apple and cherry orchards and for the vineyards that produce award-winning Israeli wines.
"In the last more than 40 years, the Golan Heights is the most quiet area of Israel," Harel said. "Everything happens on the other side of the border."
But that could be changing.
Asked if he sees any similarities between pre-1967 conditions and now, Melamed said the threat is "more severe."
"I would say that the strategic threat, as far as Israel is concerned, is today much more severe in comparison to the pre-1967. The major reason for that is that the presence of Iranians and Iranian-backed Shiite militias [are] a stone's throw away from the Israeli-Syrian ceasefire line."
Melamed said Iran wants to establish a new front in the Golan that's similar to those established in southern Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.
"Trying to launch a military front against Israel in the Golan Heights will – could result in – a massive eruption because Israel would not stand for that and rightly so," he said.
On the 49th anniversary of the Six-Day War, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made it clear how Israel views the Golan Heights.
"[The Golan Heights] are for peace. In the stormy region around us, Israel is the stabilizing factor; Israel is the solution, not the problem. The Golan Heights will forever remain in Israel's hands," Netanyahu said at a special cabinet meeting. "The Golan Heights will forever remain in Israel's hands. Israel will never come down from the Golan Heights."
For now, Harel says there's a reason why this area has remained quiet.
"We live here in peace and it's a peace because we are on the Golan Heights," he said. "When we were only in the valley and the enemy was up on the hill, it was not peace. To live in peace, we have to be strong and to live in the higher place."
In its latest report on the Jordanian economy, the World Bank stated that unemployment rates among young people in the kingdom (15-29 years) reached an unprecedented level of 50%.
The coronavirus pandemic contributed to the problem last year, but the opening of the market to foreign workers even before the beginning of the pandemic exacerbated unemployment figures among Jordanians.
The number of foreign workers in Jordan is estimated at 1 million, of whom about 350,000 are registered with the Ministry of Labor while over 600,000 others are unregistered and work informally.
Most of the foreign workers are Egyptians and Syrians. On the other hand, some blame the "pampered" young Jordanians who are not interested in engaging in jobs in which foreigners are dominant, such as construction and agriculture.
Jordanian MP Osama Al-Ajarmeh brandishes sword at rally, calls King Abdullah a pig, says he should have 'kissed' him with a bullet between the eyes
Source: The Internet - June 6, 2021
Jordanian MP Osama Al-Ajarmeh brandished a sword and said that he should have "kissed" the forehead of King Abdullah, whom he referred to as a "pig," with a bullet between the eyes. A video of Al-Ajarmeh speaking at a rally was circulated on social media on June 6, 2021, which led to his expulsion from parliament. On May 24, Al-Ajarmeh accused the king and the regime of deliberately causing power outages to prevent rallies in support of Palestinians. The events escalated to violent clashes with rioters who supported Al-Ajarmeh, in which several members of the security forces were shot.
Osama Al-Ajarmeh: "When this despicable [King Abdullah] visited the parliament, this despicable pig, who defiled Jordan... If only I had my gun with me when he visited the parliament, I would have presented you with a lesson that would have restored your past glory. I would have walked towards him, all dressed up, with my necktie and all, and I would have told him: I'd like to kiss your forehead, my noble King. And indeed I would have kissed his forehead with a bullet right between his eyes.
"Go and bring a loudspeaker. I would like to play for you... I would like to play for you the Jordanian national anthem, which makes your heart cry whenever you hear it on an international stage. But I do not cry when I sing [in the anthem]: 'Long live the King.' He is a pig. Who is this King?"
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The Jordanian parliament ousted MP Osama al-Ajarma after he claimed that the authorities had initiated a power outage across the country during the "Operation Guardian of the Walls" to prevent an Amman procession as a sign of solidarity with the Palestinians.
The measures against him led to unusual clashes with firearms between gunmen identified with him and security forces in the capital last night. It is now reported that some clashes are still going on now.
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The Lebanese Interior Ministry said security forces near Amman International Airport had been attacked by gunmen, the country's national news agency reported Sunday night. Several security guards were reported to have been injured in the incident.
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Jordanian Hizb ut-Tahrir activist Dr. Mohammad Malkawi made his remarks in an interview that aired on Hizb ut-Tahrir’s Al-Waqiyah TV (Lebanon) on May 23, 2021.
Dr. Malkawi said that his village has a vantage view that covers all of northern Israel, which would be susceptible to “regular cannons” and tank shells, and this would not require long-range missiles like the ones used to target Israel from Gaza. He added that the same is true for the entire border between Jordan and Israel and that cannons could be placed along the border and their shells would be capable of evading Israel’s missile defense systems.
Dr. Malkawi, who currently lives in Jordan, was a lecturer in universities in both the U.S. and Jordan. He was also the founder of the Chicago Hizb ut-Tahrir chapter.
Yesterday, the Jordanian authorities thwarted an attempt to smuggle a new drug shipment into the country. The shipment came from areas controlled by the Assad regime in southern Syria.
A source in the General Command of the Jordanian military forces said that the eastern military area, in coordination with the Director of Military Security and the Department of Drug Enforcement, thwarted the attempted intrusion by a smuggler vehicle from Syrian territory into the kingdom.
According to the source, Jordanian forces spotted smugglers trying to cross the border, which led to the smugglers abandoning their vehicle and escaping back to Syrian territory.
After scanning the area, the vehicle, loaded with one million and 127,000 "Captagon" pills and 7,620 "Hashish soles" was seized, and according to the military source, the seized cargo was transferred to "relevant authorities".
The Jordanian military forces stressed in their statement that they would "fight with all their might and vigilance against any infiltration or smuggling attempt, and defend the borders from any threat to the security of the Jordanian state."
It should be noted that since Assad's forces entered southern Syria in mid - 2018, the Jordan - Syria border has witnessed a significant escalation in operations and attempts to smuggle drugs- and that Oman has thwarted hundreds of these attempts.
Jordan's King Abdullah told U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday he welcomed the administration's move to reopen the U.S. consulate in Jerusalem, state-owned media said.
Blinken however said a bit of time would be needed to carry out the move, which he announced on Tuesday during his maiden Middle East trip to consolidate a ceasefire that ended the worst fighting in years between Israel and Palestinian militants.
The Jerusalem consulate had served as a de facto embassy for the Palestinians until former President Donald Trump shuttered it in 2019.
Blinken was also quoted as saying that the Jordanian monarch, whose Hashemite dynasty has custodianship of Muslim and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem, had played an instrumental role in brokering the deal to end fighting.
He further said that aid had started to arrive in the Gaza Strip as part of a drive to help reconstruction in devastated areas of the enclave, ruled by Palestinian Islamist group Hamas.
Yoni Ben Menachem, Middle East Expert, on the potenial ceasefire between Israel and Hamas terrorist organization:
Hamas demands that Jerusalem be included in the ceasefire agreement. What exactly does this mean? The head of the Jordanian General Intelligence spoke on the phone with Hamas leader Ismail Haniya about the ceasefire arrangements between Israel and the terrorist organization.
Hamas wants Jordan to monitor what is happening on the Temple Mount, as part of the ceasefire terms, and report to the United Nations about "Israel's violations of the Status Quo" in the site.
Israel cannot afford to agree to any term that has to do with Jerusalem and the Temple Mount as part of the ceasefire agreement!
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Three suspects were spotted Monday in the area of Beit She’an Valley who may have crossed into Israel from Jordan.
Israel Defense Forces (IDF) combed the region in search of the suspects.
Israeli residents were initially instructed to lock down in their homes but later returned to normal routine.
In a separate incident that may have been connected, three fires were ignited nearby.
The suspected encroachment comes after Israel Police arrested two Jordanian nationals on the previous day in the Gilboa area. The two had knives in their possessions.
A concerning development in Jordan:
This time you can definitely say that thousands in Jordan are swarming towards the border with Israel, in solidarity with the Palestinians.
It looks much like soccer fans traveling to a game of their team, but these ecstatic young men are demanding to "open the border".
The fire ignited in Gaza endangers the stability of the Jordanian regime, which right now enables the blowing off of steam, but is also afraid to lose control.
Source: Doron Paskin, Middle East Researcher
📸 Reuters