Inter-Parliamentary Union - British Group - PARLIAMENTARY DELEGATION TO JORDAN


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Delegation Reports

PARLIAMENTARY DELEGATION TO JORDAN 3 TO 8
DECEMBER 2006

Outward Delegation to Jordan 3 to 8 December 2006

Report by Mark Hendrick MP

Delegation

Mark Hendrick MP
Leader Labour

Christine Russell MP
Labour

Kevan Jones MP
Labour

Rt Hon Lord Fowler Conservative

Baroness Hooper
Conservative

Baroness Northover
Liberal Democrat

Kenneth Courtenay
General Secretary
British Group IPU

This was my first visit to Jordan - but definitely not my last. The quality of the people we met and the location all added up to a thoroughly stimulating and enjoyable experience.
The visit commenced with a meeting with the Minister of Islamic Affairs, Mr Abdelfattah Salah. He presides over a Ministry responsible for over four thousand Mosques, a similar number of Imams, and 500 representatives in Jerusalem as well as the thousands throughout Jordan. It has direct contact to the 1.5 million people who attend Friday prayers, and has more of an impact than any of the mass media.
Mr Salah presented us with a copy of the Amman Message. This is a document compiled as a result of a conference held in Amman last year, attended by many Muslim scholars from all over the Islamic world.
It depicts a moderate and tolerant interpretation of Islam which permeates the Kingdom of Jordan and has considerable influence outside of Jordan as well. It has been translated into seven languages and provides a refreshing contrast to the more extreme forms of Islam so often depicted by the mass media as if it is the norm.
We also met the Speaker of the Lower House of Representatives, Mr Abdelhadi Majali, who discussed the structure and powers of the Jordanian Parliament, which as a first time visitor I believed (quite wrongly), had few powers in a governmental system described as a constitutional monarchy.
The Parliament has the power to reject legislative proposals from the King, although that power is reciprocated by the King. However, the nature of the Jordanian political system ensures that that power is very unlikely to be used, given the make-up of the wholly appointed Upper House (the Senate.)
The meeting with the Prime Minister, Dr Marouf Bakhet, was fascinating. He gave equal weight to domestic issues and foreign affairs, talking about reform of government and the political system, as well as Jordan's precarious geographical position in the Middle East and its equally precarious relations with its neighbours such as Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Lebanon, Syria and Iraq.
The job of this Prime Minister is definitely a 'high wire' act without the safety net, and he appeared more than qualified to do it given his previous experience as an ambassador having served in Israel and Lebanon.
His depth of understanding of the political environment in the region, coupled with his measured judgement and sensitivity to the motives of neighbouring governments in the region, I found breathtaking.
He spoke of the "linkage" that is now accepted as a "reality" by most governments and that what is happening in the Lebanon and Iraq are just symptoms of the failure to solve the Palestine problem.
The Foreign Minister, Mr Abdul Ilah Khatib, was also impressive. Surprisingly, he used the example of the European Union as a model for economic integration that he would like to see pursued in the Middle East.
As a Europhile, I found this very uplifting, because so much of the British media neglects the positive aspects of European integration, and puts the sixty years of relative peace in Europe solely down to NATO.
Dr Khatib believed that the European Union can play an important role in the region, and was quite capable, given political will, to balance the role of the "great powers as well as the superpower."
He believed that regional integration was essential if Iran was not to dominate it and be the cause of conflict, in the same way that a war in Europe with Germany involved in it is now unthinkable because of what I would call the 'Europeanisation' of Germany.
The meetings were punctuated by two deeply contrasting excursions. The first was to the Dead Sea, which became the focus of discussion with the Minister for Water and Irrigation.
Water is 'big politics' in the Middle East, and ambitious plans to link the Red Sea with the Dead Sea are currently being negotiated between states surrounding the seas.
The aim is to restore the original level of the Dead Sea for environmental reasons and also to transport water from the Red Sea for desalination to improve supply for agriculture and for drinking.
The second excursion was to the Hitteen Refugee Camp, which is the home to 45,000 Palestinians many of whom were displaced as a result of the conflict in 1967.
The conditions as one would expect are poor, but compared with camps in Gaza or the West Bank are probably better.
The United Nations is doing as much as possible with the help of the Jordanian government in the areas of education, health and welfare but, as one would expect, there is always more that the International community could do.
At the end of this visit, I was left with the overall impression that Jordan was a country changing quickly in a fast changing world.
It was modernising itself at a pace, was an oasis of tolerance in a desert of intolerance, and I believe a force for good in the region.
The good relations that exist between the UK and Jordan should be maintained at all costs, because the political fallout from the war in Iraq has done so much to sully the UK's reputation in the region.
We really must start to win more friends and influence people, many of whom attribute the problems in the region to Britain's role in 1948 and its failure to properly honour the Balfour Declaration of 1917.