Jordan’s lower house tasks legal committee to examine all Amman-Israel deals amid Gaza war

AMMAN: The Jordanian lower house on Monday tasked its legal committee with examining the agreements Jordan has signed with Israel.

The house speaker, Ahmad Safadi, proposed during Monday’s session that all Jordanian-Israeli agreements be examined by the legal committee, which will then refer its recommendations to the government for any necessary actions.

Nearly all lawmakers present during the session voted in favor of Safadi’s proposal.

The speaker also called on the legal committee to prepare an official complaint letter to be sent to the International Criminal Court about “Israeli war crimes and genocide in Gaza” and ask other Arab and Islamic parliaments to follow suit.

He also said that the chamber will coordinate with the government and the military to increase the number of field hospitals in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

Jordan has had a military field hospital operating in Gaza since 2009. The Jordanian Army said that it had twice air-dropped aid to the hospital, which was reported to be suffering from severe shortages.

Besides the 1994 Wadi Arab Peace Treaty, Jordan signed a $10 billion with Israel in 2016 under which the country will receive gas for 15 years from a field in the Mediterranean.

Also in November 2022 Jordan and Israel signed a memorandum of understanding to move ahead with a water-for-energy deal. Under the UAE-brokered agreement, Jordan is to build 600 megawatts of solar power capacity to export to Israel, which would in return provide water-scarce Jordan with 200 million cubic meters of desalinated water.

Jordan has previously said it would “immediately” recall its ambassador in Tel Aviv in protest against the humanitarian catastrophe Israel has caused in Gaza. Amman also said it has told Israel not to send its ambassador to the kingdom, linking the return of the two envoys to Israel halting its war on Gaza.