Jordanians Protest against Gas Deal with «Israel» for 3rd Week

Local Editor

More than a thousand people protested in the Jordanian capital Amman on Friday against a recent government agreement to import natural gas from the "Israeli" apartheid entity, local media reported.

This is the third consecutive week protests had taken place against the controversial $10 billion gas deal, which was signed on 26 September.

This Friday's demonstration departed from the Grand Husseini Mosque in central Amman after Friday prayers.

Chants included "Oh great Jordanian people, the enemy's ["Israel"] gas is imperialism," and "from the south to the north, the gas of the enemy is occupation."

The government had defended its decision by saying it will cut the state's energy bill and diversify their sources of gas supplies.

A US-led consortium leading the development of the entity's offshore gas reserves announced the deal to sell natural gas from its Leviathan field to Jordan.

US firm Noble Energy, the lead partner, said the contract with the National Electric Power Company of Jordan [NEPCO] was for 8.5 million cubic meters per day over a 15-year term.

MPs from a variety of different political backgrounds had spoken out against the deal, saying that "normalization is unacceptable in all its forms".

The protests are being called by the "National Campaign to Overturn the Gas Deal with the Zionist Entity", a broad coalition of civil society groups, activists, lawyers and political groups.

"Our government should listen to the people here," said Ahmad Jaabari, a merchant. "We can buy gas from anywhere; why ‘Israel'? We don't want the peace deal with them."

The campaign estimates that 56 percent of the deal [$5.6bn] and an estimated 40 percent of electricity bills paid by Jordanian households will go directly into "Israeli" regime coffers.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team