Jordan on a wire?

King Abdullah II of Jordan, at the House of Representatives in Amman, March 23, 2021. AFP - -

By: Marie-France Chatin Follow

3 min

As it celebrated the 100th anniversary of its founding on April 11, 2021, Jordan is generally one of the countries in the Middle East least in the limelight, arguably as an oasis of stability and security.

A stagnant economy even before the pandemic, which contracted by 5% last year (2020) as unemployment affected 25% of the population and up to 48% of Jordanians aged between 20 and 24.

The wars in the neighboring countries of Syria and Iraq have particularly affected the country, which is small in size and devoid of wealth in its subsoil.

Publicity

Little oil or gas, not much water for this territory wedged between Israel, Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia. Amman nevertheless knows how to take advantage of its strategic location and its docile foreign policy to attract the help of its allies: the Gulf States and the United States. But this aid is drying up. In 2011, Jordan received $ 5 billion in aid from the Gulf states. She only received half of it in 2018. Jordanians are described as having lost confidence in their leaders who are seen as corrupt and incompetent. Recently, the image of unity cultivated by the royal family has been tarnished by dissensions which came to light with the announcement of the house arrest of Prince Hamza Ben Hussein, the half-brother of King Abdullah II. away from the throne in 1999.Prince Hamza is implicated along with two personalities close to Saudi Arabia in an attempt to destabilize the kingdom, in collaboration with an unidentified foreign power. Look at the Jordanian political scene and the place of Jordan in a Middle East in full reorganization. 

Guests:

Agnès Levallois,

research fellow at the Foundation for Strategic Research and vice-president of IREMMO

Hana Jaber, 

scientific director of the Lokman Slim Foundation and associate researcher at the History of the Contemporary Arab World Chair

Marc Lavergne,

geopolitologist, research director at CNRS.

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