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AMMAN — HRH Princess Alia Tabbaa, honorary president of the Promising Hands Association (PHA), on Sunday honoured the 56 young men and women who participated in the Promising Hands Youth Conference.

The Princess presented the students with certificates and gifts in appreciation of their participation, according to the Jordan news Agency, Petra. The conference’s motto “I am my role model” was adopted to motivate students to become positive role models in all spheres, PHA Director Azmi Shahin said. 

AMMAN — The Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (TRC) on Monday informed the telecommunication companies in the Kingdom about trial runs of the fifth generation (5G) network. 

TRC Chief Commissioner Ghazi Jbour said test runs are available within the frequency of 3,640-3,700 megahertz and 3,740-3,800 megahertz, according to a TRC statement.  

Jbour expressed the commission’s readiness to offer the necessary support for trial runs by interested companies.

5G technologies are known for their high speed in transferring huge data and their conformity with advanced and modern technologies, which qualifies the 5G to be an economic platform that supports transformation in the digital economy and the concept of the fourth industrial revolution, he said. 

The chief commissioner pointed out that 5G networks will not only be traditional communication networks and platforms, but will also act as economic platforms that provide services and applications in the health, education, transport, water, industrial and smart cities sectors, among others. 

Jbour noted that such networks will contribute to improving the quality of services presented to beneficiaries and enhancing the economic growth.

The 5G is expected to connect people, things, data, applications, transport systems and cities in smart networked communication environments, according to the International Telecommunication Union website. 

It should transport a huge amount of data much faster, reliably connect an extremely large number of devices and process very high volumes of data with minimal delay.

5G technologies are expected to support applications such as smart homes and buildings, smart cities, 3D video, work and play in the cloud, remote medical services, virtual and augmented reality and massive machine-to-machine communications for industry automation, the website added. 

AMMAN — A total of four violations have been recorded on the Disi Water Conveyance Project in Karak's Khatraneh, one of the Kingdom’s strategic water resources, according to the Ministry of Water and Irrigation, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

The Ministry of Water and Irrigation/Water Authority on Monday said that following a tip-off about illegal pumping from Disi, a security campaign was formed which cited four violations of water tankers filling up illegally from Disi at night and selling the water to people.

The ministry called on the public to verify the source of water purchased from water tankers, and to ask the owner of the tanker to provide them with a stamped receipt that shows the source of the water.

To curb this phenomenon, the statement drew attention to the authorities' intensive inspections, noting that the water authority's new Penal Code has toughened punishments against water thefts and network sabotage, as well as selling or buying water illegally.

During the first six months of this year, the ministry recorded 61 violations and acts of sabotage over the Disi project’s facilities, despite the state-assigned patrols to protect the project’s components.

The latest violation on the Disi project happened early last month, when authorities reported the largest and gravest violation that the project has witnessed since its construction started in 2009, which caused a major and direct disruption of water supply to hundreds of thousands of subscribers in Amman, Zarqa, Russaifeh, Ajloun, Irbid, Mafraq and Jerash, which receive the precious fossil water of the Disi aquifer, located some 350 kilometres southeast of Amman near the Jordanian-Saudi border.

AMMAN — Brexit continues to divide the UK, as is apparent from the continued political stalemate, according to a British scholar.

After three years of a stalemate, the new Prime Minister Boris Johnson wants to leave the EU with or without a deal on the October 31, but parliament has just passed a law mandating him to seek an extension to the Brexit negotiations with the EU if he cannot secure a deal before mid-October, Professor of Public Policy and Director of the Institute for Policy Research at University of Bath Nick Pearce has said.

“If he refuses to do this, he may have to resign. Whatever happens, the UK is likely to have a general election in November,” Pearce, who served as former head of the No. 10 Downing Street Policy Unit to former prime minister Gordon Brown, told The Jordan Times in a recent e-mail interview. 

The hope is that it returns a new government with a fresh mandate to resolve the Brexit crisis, one way or another, he added. 

However, the fear is that it will result in another hung parliament in which no side is sufficiently strong to overcome the blockages, Pearce explained.

Although there is a speculation about the cancellation of the Brexit or organising the second referendum the professor thinks this parliament will not do that.

“Only after a general election and a new parliament is elected might it be possible to hold a second referendum. Even then, it would probably require a short lived coalition government of Labour, the Liberal Democrats, the Scottish National Party and the Greens to push through the legislation needed for another referendum,” Pearce pointed out.

The polarisation within the British society increased xenophobia towards minorities and according to a reported rise in hate crimes around the time of the referendum in 2016 and a rise in activities of far-right movements and groups, the UK has not  experienced the kind of widespread hostility to Muslims seen in many other EU countries, he noted.

Regarding possible scenarios in the near future, Pearce said: “A further delay is now possible, given that parliament has legislated to stop the UK leaving without a deal at the end of October, but whatever happens, Brexit has given rise to new divisions in the UK and looks likely to restructure the political party system.”

Also, the territorial integrity of the UK is also affected by this crisis, he added, noting: “The future of the UK itself is also at stake - will Scotland remain in the UK after Brexit, and will it be possible to preserve peace and restore power sharing in Northern Ireland.”

“Brexit will make it harder to trade with the EU and that will make Britain poorer in the long run than it might otherwise have been. But in the end, the damage may be as much, or more, political than economic,” Pearce concluded.

AMMAN — Jordan’s peace treaty with Israel has been jeopardised and the Lower House will not hesitate to pressure the government to reconsider the agreement, House Speaker Atef Tarawneh said on Sunday. 

In remarks during a meeting with German parliamentarians Alexander Graf Lambsdorff of the Free Democratic Party of Germany at the Bundestag and Olaf in der Beek, Tarawneh said that attempts to impose a new status quo on the Palestinian territories will never be accepted, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

He added that the region will never enjoy peace and security as long as the occupation continues to violate international legitimacy resolutions.

The speaker stressed that occupation authorities’ violations to international legitimacy resolutions are only a proof of the “state of terrorism” prevailing in Israel.

In this regard, the lawmaker referred to the Israeli prime minister’s decision to impose Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank’s Jordan Valley and the northern Dead Sea region and annex illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories, expressing Jordan’s strong denunciation of such remarks.

Also during the meeting, Tarawneh expressed the Kingdom’s appreciation for the German support to Jordan in providing services to refugees, stressing that countries hosting refugees still need the international community to honour its moral and humanitarian pledges.

For their part, the German parliamentarians “highly” appreciated the Jordanian role and efforts in realising regional security and stability and hosting refugees, as well as offering an “advanced” reform model despite the conflicts in the region. 

AMMAN — Both the government and the Jordan Teachers' Association (JTA) on Sunday reiterated their commitment to dialogue but no direct talks were held to end a nationwide teacher strike, now in its second week.

The government said it welcomed an invitation by the syndicate for dialogue, in which the syndicate’s vice president, Naser Nawasrah, called on Prime Minister Omar Razzaz to set a meeting place for Sunday afternoon to discuss teachers’ demand of a 50-per cent pay raise.

In a statement later in the day, the government noted that the taskforce designated to follow up on the teachers' strike is prepared to meet the JTA’s board at the Ministry of Education, according to the Jordan News Agency, Petra.

However, in a video statement on the JTA’s official social media accounts, Nawasrah said that the association has met several times with the taskforce and the talks reached a dead-end every time because the taskforce was not authorised to fulfill the teachers’ demand.

Meanwhile, the Education Ministry called on its directorates on Sunday to provide it with the names of teachers who are still on strike and are still abstaining from attending classes, according to Petra.

In a communiqué to the directorates, the ministry asked to show the number of days of abstaining from work for each teacher since the beginning of the scholastic year, with their ministerial numbers and schools they work at.

The JTA responded by reiterating that “all teachers are complying with the JTA’s instructions”, stressing that the JTA alone holds the responsibility for the strike and teachers’ abstaining from work.

On Saturday, the JTA rejected a letter by the premier stressing the need for students and teachers to return to the classroom and for the educational process to continue, criticising the letter’s failure to address the 50-per cent raise upon which the strike was initiated. 

The JTA underlined that the strike will continue until the delivery of the pay raise, which they say had been promised by the government since 2014 but was never implemented.

Several meetings between the government and the syndicate and mediation efforts by members of Parliament over the past two weeks have so far failed to arrive at an agreement to end the strike in the Kingdom’s public schools, in which some 1.5 million students are enrolled.

The government is adamant on an agreement signed with the previous JTA board that ties salary increase to performance, under which raises can reach 250 per cent.

It says that the JTA’s demand of a 50-per cent raise would cost the Treasury around JD112 million.

AMMAN — A comprehensive revision for the national railway project is currently under way, an official source told The Jordan Times on Sunday.

Under the first phase, the revised project is envisioned to connect the Kingdom’s southern governorate of Aqaba, some 330km south of Amman, with the northern town of Ramtha bordering Syria, through a route to transfer passengers and goods, the source said.

The second phase of the scheme is planned to connect Ramtha with the Iraqi border in Jordan’s northeast, providing another course for passenger and goods commute, according to the source.

The government has received a “request from the Gulf” that expressed interest in financing the venture, which is foreseen to play a “big role” in stimulating the economy and contributing to easier movement of passengers and products, the source added.

The Cabinet in June instructed the Ministry of Transport to track the progress in studies pertaining to the envisioned national railway project.

The project seeks to connect a number of the Kingdom’s cities and production centres to a railway network that would also provide access to neighbouring countries.

According to the Ministry of Transport’s website, the Kingdom will be developing a modern, reliable freight railway network linking the nation’s key cities (Amman and major industrial cities such as Mafraq and Zarqa), the country’s gateway port (the Port of Aqaba) and the largest phosphate mine (Shidiya Mine).

AMMAN — Deputising for HRH Crown Prince Hussein, Prime Minister Omar Razzaz on Sunday launched the national pact for employment, which includes government tools and commitments by partners.

During a ceremony to announce the pact, Razzaz said that economic growth is key to employment and that the government over the two coming weeks will announce procedures that contribute to stimulating growth rates that can generate jobs, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

His Majesty King Abdullah took to Twitter on Sunday to comment on the pact by voicing support to programmes and projects that provide jobs to Jordanians and enable them to apply their ideas.

“What matters is to have tangible results that undergo continuous assessment and revision, so as to realise the envisioned goals,” His Majesty said in the tweet in Arabic. 

The pact, which was prepared by the government in cooperation with the private sector, aims at empowering the youth and enhancing their capabilities, as well as finding solutions to address unemployment and developing human resources.

The premier also referred to launching an electronic platform that offers employers comprehensive information on jobseekers. 

Razzaz said that this pact will be a trans-government project that embodies true partnership between the executive and legislative authorities, security apparatuses, chambers of industry and commerce, professional associations and institutions related to vocational training.  

He said that the growth rate currently stands at some 2 per cent, which is not enough to address employment and joblessness, noting that even growth rates of 6 and 8 per cent between 2002 and 2008 were not sufficient for solving the unemployment challenges at that time.

Referring to incentives for the private sector, the prime minister said that Jordan has high production costs and the bureaucratic procedures discourage investors, and such issues have to be solved.

Labour Minister Nidal Bataineh said that unemployment rates will not drop overnight, noting that such percentages are linked to regional and international changes that impact the economic growth in the Kingdom.

The minister noted that the government has recently issued new work permits for sectors with low turnout rates by Jordanians.

He also referred to the initiative of establishing satellite branches in governorates under an action plan that aims at building 56 satellite branches in the textile field to employ some 18,000 Jordanians, in additions to embarking on other satellite branches in the ICT sector.

Under the national pact, employers should provide the government, represented by the Labour Ministry, with lists of current and future vacancies and sign train-to-employ agreements, according to Petra. 

AMMAN — Jordan on Sunday highlighted the importance of a decisive Arab and Islamic stance denouncing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s announcement to annex illegal settlements and the West Bank’s Jordan Valley region and impose Israeli sovereignty there.

Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi, during an emergency meeting for foreign ministers of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation in Jeddah, said that Netanyahu’s pledge stems from the “delusion” that the Palestinian cause and its centrality to Arabs and Muslims can be glossed over, according to a ministry statement. 

The foreign minister stressed that an emergency meeting for Arab foreign ministers in Cairo last week took stances to dispel such notions.

The minister said that such an Israeli decision is part of a planned strategy to perpetuate the occupation and kill opportunities for the establishment of a Palestinian state within the pre-1967 lines.

Thus, he added, there should be an effective and decisive Arab-Islamic response to Israel’s attempts to impose new facts on the ground and undermine opportunities for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.

It is essential to adopt practical steps to counter illegitimate Israeli policies and to support Palestinians, the top diplomat stressed, urging joint Arab-Islamic efforts at the Security Council and for the international community to push for a unified position that rejects Israel’s announcement.

The minister added that Jordan engages daily and exerts relentless efforts to protect the Islamic and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem.

In this regard, Safadi highlighted that His Majesty King Abdullah, the Custodian of Islamic and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem, dedicates all the Kingdom’s prowess to preserve these sanctuaries and maintain their Islamic and Christian Arab identities.

There is no peace, no security and no stability without ending the occupation and establishing an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital according to international legitimacy resolutions and the Arab peace initiative, the minister underlined. 

On the sidelines of the congress, Safadi separately met with some of his counterparts participating in the assembly to discuss the Israeli decision, according to a second ministry statement.

During the meetings with foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia Ibrahim Al Assaf, of Turkey Mevlüt Çavusoglu and of Palestine Riyad Al Maliki, Safadi condemned the Israeli decision and discussed means to enhance the Kingdom’s bilateral relations with their respective countries.

AMMAN — At the What Really Matters Congress,  Rawan Barakat, 33, from Amman, shared her story, in which her parents discovered a few months after her birth that she did not look at them when they interacted with her.

When she was three or four years old, Rawan’s parents realised that she was visually impaired, and physicians made it clear that there was no hope for her to regain her eyesight.

“This gave them two choices: Hide their child in shame and forget about her; or work hard to let her be like others and integrate her into society,” Rawan told the audience.

“The latter option is what they chose, starting with finding a kindergarten, looking for one that would accommodate me as a visually impaired individual,” she said.

Her parents even allowed her to play in the neighbourhood with the other children, Rawan said, which made her feel like a human being.

While in the seventh grade, she joined a drama school during the summer and discovered her passion for theatre.

Rawan finished Tawjihi with an average of 83 in order to enter the Arts Faculty. “There were many people who tried to put me down, I was told I was accepted into the college because I am visually impaired and they want to use me for donations,” she said.

Rawan said that one day she was with a group of youth from around the Kingdom who were brainstorming how to benefit society, “one wanted to spend time with the elderly, one wanted to paint a school wall, but I wanted to make an audio library for children,” she said.

This led Rawan to start a project that became the Raneen Foundation, which turns books into audiobooks to help not only visually impaired children,  but all children.

Overcoming many challenges, Raneen grew bigger and Rawan was able to be among the 10 finalists in the King Abdullah II Award for Youth Innovation and Achievement in 2009.

“It is important to invest in any opportunity you come across and prevent yourself from allowing negative thoughts to stop you from changing your life — do not waste any door that might open for you, and face the biggest challenge you will face; yourselves,” Rawan concluded.