Jordan

The Nasib border crossing between Syria and Jordan (also known as the Jaber-Nasib crossing) fell to Syrian opposition factions in 2015. Since then, the crossing has been closed, partly due to Jordanian concerns regarding the presence of terrorist organizations in southern Syria. ...

Calling the current Palestinian leadership "juvenile," Jordanian MP Muhammad Al-Zahrawi said that "according to the constitution, the West Bank belongs to Jordan" and that "all Jordanian lands must come under the Hashemite banner." His remarks came on July 18, 2018, during a spec...

Jordanian MP Huda Etoom said that her late octogenarian mother had had a single unfulfilled desire: "to don an explosives belt and blow herself up among the Zionist Jews." MP Etoom, who represents Jerash, made the comment during a special session of the parliamentary House of Rep...

Following a series of low-magnitude earthquakes felt in Israel and neighboring countries in early July, Kamal Zakarneh, a columnist for the Jordanian daily Al-Dustour, wrote that the quakes may have been caused by the underground testing of nuclear or other weapons that Israel is...

Against the backdrop of the U.S. administration's efforts to advance its Middle East peace plan, known as "the Deal of the Century," whose terms have not yet been publicized, Salem Falahat, a Jordanian politician and former head of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) in Jordan, slammed t...

On June 14, 2018, the Jordanian king swore in a new government after the previous government resigned due to extensive protests over its economic policy.[1] A notable appointment was that of Jumana Ghunaimat, formerly the editor-in-chief of Jordan's Al-Ghad daily, as state m...

"Fire kites" and "fire balloons" launched from Gaza into Israel in the past few months have caused multiple fires on a daily basis in the region bordering the Gaza Strip. Since April 2018, hundreds of these kites and balloons, which carry a burning rag or an explosive device, hav...

Introduction In recent years, Jordan has been experiencing a grave and ongoing economic crisis that is steadily worsening due to the influx of Syrian refugees to the country and the diminishing of foreign aid. Jordanian King 'Abdallah addressed this in a June 4, 2018 meeting w...

After 65 years of enmity between North and South Korea and of severe North Korea-U.S. tension, both conflicts appear to be moving towards resolution. At the historic April 27, 2018 summit between North Korean President Kim Jong-un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in, the two l...

On May 27, 2018, in his column in the Jordanian government daily Al-Rai, 'Abd Al-Hadi Raji Al-Majali wrote in love and praise of Palestinian terrorist Dalal Mughrabi, who led the bus hijacking attack on Israel's coastal road on March 11, 1978, in which 35 Israeli citizens were ki...

Jordanian journalist, writer, and educator Zuleikha Abu Risha, who is known for her fierce opposition to religious extremism in Jordan and who has received death threats because of her views,[1] again drew fire recently for her condemnation of the naming of a prayer hall at the S...

In his February 25, 2018 column in the Jordanian daily Al-Ghad, 'Alaa Al-Din Abu Zeina wrote about Egyptian star footballer Muhammad (Mo) Salah, who has been playing for Liverpool since June 2017. Abu Zeina noted that  Salah has managed to cause even racist British soccer fa...

In his January 17, 2018 column in the Al-Ghad daily, headed "How Are Trump and Netanyahu Any Different from Hitler?" Jihad Al-Mansi claimed that "the behavior of [U.S. President] Trump and [Israel Prime Minister] Netanyahu is much worse than anything done by Hitler." He writ...

After the results of the February 16, 2018 elections for the Engineers Union in the Jordanian city of Al-Zarqa were announced – i.e. that the Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated White List was the winner – some of the White List supporters cheered and chanted slogans equating the city ...

In a Friday sermon at the Old Tila' Al-Ali Mosque in Amman, Jordan, Imam Ahmad Al-Rawashdeh said that "as long as they are dispersed, it is impossible to annihilate the Jews," but that Allah had "informed us that He would gather the Jews in one place, so that they could be dealt ...

Introduction For years, Jordan has been in economic crisis, with a budget deficit and a large public debt. Most of the revenue for the budget comes from aid in the form of grants from its allies, primarily the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, but these have been reduced in recent years....

Alongside statements by Palestinian President Mahmoud 'Abbas and other Palestinian Authority (PA) and Fatah officials expressing opposition to terrorism and support for non-violent protests, officials and media outlets of the PA and Fatah continue to praise terrorists and to pres...

Following reports on the medical examination recently taken by U.S. President Donald Trump, Fahed Al-Fanek, a senior columnist for the Jordanian daily Al-Rai and the former chair of the daily's board of directors, wrote that, even if Trump is physically healthy, this does not mea...

On January 20, 2018, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence made a brief visit to Jordan as part of a tour that also included Egypt and Israel. This was the first visit to the region by a senior U.S. official since U.S. President Trump's December 6, 2017 announcement recognizing Jerusale...

In an article he published on August 4, 2017 in the Omani Al-Watan daily, Palestinian journalist Jawad Al-Bashiti, who resides in Jordan, wrote that Judaism has been a "religion of hatred" toward all mankind for the past 3,000 years, and that the Jews invented a god of their own ...

Amid concern in Jordan about the presence of pro-Iran Shi'ite forces on the Jordan-Syria border,[1] and following the November 19, 2017 Arab League statement calling Hizbullah an organization "that supports terrorist groups in the Arab world," Fahd Al-Fanek, a senior columnist in...

On November 21, 2017, the German international broadcaster Deutsche Welle's Arabic-language channel aired a youth program on women's rights in Jordan, during which a Jordanian teen told of sexual harassment she had been subjected to and pointed out that when she went to file a co...