(Jerusalem Post) Samer Abu Libdeh - Last month, King Abdullah II appointed his former minister of finance, Bassem Awadallah, as director of his office. Awadallah is considered one of the major architects of Jordan's economic liberalization program, which has topped the king's agenda ever since he came to the throne. In the absence of a more open political system and with Jordan's polity fractured along tribal lines, it is significant that Awadallah and former foreign minister Farouk Kasrawi, now special advisor to the king, are both of Palestinian origin. The king's closest aides are West Bankers - or at least that's how the majority of Jordanian citizens perceive them. But the king makes it a point to call his palace "The House of all Jordanians." The king has begun to realize that regional dynamics in Israel and the PA territories are providing all the reasons to revive his father's legitimate political interests in the West Bank. The writer is a Jordanian journalist and a Senior Visiting Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
2006-05-10 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive