Jordan: King Abdullah appoints US-educated technocrat as PM

Jordan’s King Abdullah has designated key palace aide Jafar Hassan as prime minister after the government resigned on Sunday, the royal court has announced. The move comes days after a parliamentary election in which the Muslim Brotherhood opposition made some gains in the US-allied Hashemite Kingdom, Reuters has reported.

Hassan, now head of King Abdullah’s office and a former planning minister, replaces Bisher Khasawneh, a veteran diplomat and former palace adviser who was appointed nearly four years ago. Khasawneh will stay on in a caretaker capacity until the formation of a new cabinet, said officials.

Harvard-educated Hassan is a widely respected technocrat. He will face the challenges of mitigating the impact of the Gaza war on the kingdom’s economy, hard-hit by curbs to investment and a sharp drop in tourism.

In his appointment letter, the king said that democracy should be strengthened in the country and that its economic future hinged on pushing ahead with donor-backed mega-infrastructure projects in energy and water.

The outgoing prime minister had sought to drive reforms pushed by King Abdullah to help reverse a decade of sluggish growth, hovering at around two per cent, that was worsened by the pandemic and conflict in neighbouring Iraq and Syria. The traditional, conservative establishment had long been blamed for obstructing a modernisation drive advocated by the Western-leaning monarch, fearing that liberal reforms would erode their grip on power.

Politicians say a key task ahead is accelerating International Monetary Fund-guided reforms and reining in more than $50 billion in public debt in a country with high unemployment where stability is supported by billions of dollars of foreign aid from Western donors.

The opposition Muslim Brotherhood made significant gains in last Tuesday’s election, boosted by anger over Israel’s war against the Palestinians in Gaza. The movement won 31 seats, the most since parliamentary life was revived in 1989 after decades of martial law, leaving it the largest political grouping in parliament.

In a country where anti-Israel sentiment runs high, the Brotherhood has led some of the largest protests in the region in support of the legitimate resistance against the Israeli occupation, led by Hamas, which its opponents say allowed it to increase its popularity at the polls.

Although the new composition of the 138-member parliament retains a pro-government majority, the more vocal Brotherhood-led opposition could challenge IMF-backed free-market reforms and foreign policy, say diplomats and officials.

Under Jordan’s constitution, most powers still rest with the king, who appoints governments and can dissolve parliament. The assembly can force a cabinet to resign by a vote of no confidence.

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