With the prospect of imminent, dramatic rises in food and energy prices, I am struck by two dynamics in #Jordan.

The deep concern by experts and the complete lack of concern by decision-makers. The official line: #Jordan has overcome more difficult challenges in the past, its people are steadfast, the kingdom is strong and we will overcome future challenges.

Basically, their plan is #Jordanian exceptionalism.

With everything going on in #Jordan right now, this to me is just as big of a scandal

#Jordan #COVID19 taskforce member reportedly admits to press that Pfizer has cancelled its contract for 2 million vaccine doses to #Jordan due to late payments

Really??
khaberni.com/news/415682 *If* true, this is the type of mismanagement and poor government administration that has #Jordan-ians furious.

Should businesses and families suffer many more months of partial-lockdowns when the govt blew an opportunity to secure vaccines for 10-15% of population?

In statement read by newscasters across #Jordan simultaneously, King Abdullah discussed recent events as efforts to “undermine the homeland.”

Adds “it was most painful for me because the sides of sedition came from within and outside our one house.”

[NOT OFFICIAL TRANSLATION] King Abdullah highlights his decision to deal the issue in line with "Jordanian values" and "Hashemite legacy."

Adds next steps will be governed by the "interests of the homeland and our people"

I love it how veteran American journalists are now re-discovering #Jordan after a decades-long absence and writing as if it is still 1980, 1991 or 1999.

#الأردن #الامير_حمزه It highlights a deep lack of understanding of how the #Jordan has evolved under the reign of King Abdullah.

No, East Bank tribes are no longer a monolith and neither are its leaders. A new political-economic elite have risen. Even balance of power in old institutions has shifted

I can say that measures such as court-ordered media blackouts and vague application of anti-terror & cybercrime laws, although intended for domestic media /audience, have made #Jordan *the most* difficult country for me to report from in the region

That's after 14 years here And I say "most difficult" because the red-lines are constantly moving, the goalposts shifting, topics that are permissible today are suddenly forbidden tomorrow.

Sources are afraid old social media posts, brought to light because of an interview today, may land them in court.

#Jordan Prince Hamzah: military chief "informed me that I was not allowed to go out, to communicate with people or to meet with them because in the meetings that I had been present in....there had been criticism of the government or the king"

Incredible

bbc.com/news/world-mid… #Jordan Prince Hamzah claims (confirms?) his staff have been arrested, he and his family have been placed under house arrest in the Al-Salaam Palace outside Amman, in video to the BBC.

This is absolutely unprecedented, unparalleled, and perhaps just the start of a deeper crisis

#Jordan authorities arrested Sharif Hassen bin Zaid, former royal court chief/economic power-broker Bassem Awadallah and “others” for security reasons in dramatic raids across the capital- and in news, taken down, a senior prince and his staff

petra.gov.jo/Include/InnerP… According to reports and claims by relatives of staff, that senior prince is former #Jordan Crown Prince Hamzah- who some claim is currently under house arrest.

The widespread arrests were dramatic in the amount of military, police and mukhabarat forces and house raids.

1/ Outside of core supporters, few in the #Arab world will shed tears over the death of Qassem Soleimani, who in their view went from a hero of resistance to Israel to mastermind of ethno-sectarian cleansing + decade-long campaign of weakening, isolating, butchering Sunni Muslims 2/Soleimani had emerged, in many people’s minds, as both the mastermind and symbol of Iran’s alleged hegemonic ambitions in the #Arab world and the leader of yet another foreign occupation force on Arab lands. #QassemSoleimani #Iran