At the beginning of June, Jordan was shaken by a week of peaceful demonstrations against a project for a fiscal law which planned for a rise in taxes of between 5 % and 25 % for all persons with an annual salary of more than 8,000 dinars ($11,245). The demonstrators, whose quality of life had…
Saudi Arabia did not come to Jordan’s rescue with a $2.5bn aid package, although King Salman very much wanted to appear as if it had. What happened was an attempt by King Salman to take the credit for the money that Kuwait had already pledged. What resulted was a scramble by rival Gulf states to…
For five days, Jordanians took to the streets to protests measures by the government to increase taxes. Demonstrators also demanded access and improvements to city services, the lack of which compounds the high rate of unemployment to which Jordan’s population is subjected. In the largest protests the country has seen since 2011, Jordanians unseated prime…
The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan has traditionally been in the ‘western’ camp. It is politically attached to the United Kingdom and the United States as well as to Saudi Arabia and other Sunni majority Gulf states. The Jordanian King Abdullah II has in the past been hostile to Iran. He was to first to publicly…
As protests continue in Jordan, the kingdom has put the blame for the economy’s lacklustre performance and controversial tax reforms on IMF-backed austerity measures and a drop in foreign aid. But in reality, say analysts, the economy has been badly managed for decades, while significant amounts of government spending remain undisclosed. ‘The problems were there…
The voices from Jordan should make everyone sit up and listen. “We the people are the source of authority and we want to reclaim our ability to make change in the presence of weak institutions like the parliament or political parties,” said Hala Ahed, a lawyer. Or Deema Kharabsheh, who had been demonstrating outside the…
