by WorldTribune Staff, May 30, 2016
King Abdullah dissolved Jordan’s parliament on May 29 and appointed a caretaker prime minister to organize new elections.
Abdullah appointed veteran politician Hani Mulqi as prime minister after accepting the resignation of Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour, Reuters reported.
The main political opposition in Jordan comes from the Muslim Brotherhood, which in 2014 was designated as a terrorist group after one of its top members was charged with “souring ties with a foreign country” by criticizing the UAE.
The Brotherhood, though, remains active in Jordan and is calling for sweeping political reforms but stops short of demanding the overthrow of the monarchy, according to a report by Reuters.
The Brotherhood’s political arm in Jordan, the Islamic Action Front, “represents many disenfranchised Jordanians of Palestinian origin, who are in the majority in the population of seven million and live mostly in urban areas,” the report said.
Jordan has a peace treaty with Israel but the country’s parliament, which is made up mostly of Islamists, remains anti-Israel and its members have more than once called to annul the peace treaty.