Jordanian- Iraqi cooperation agreement, Islamists criticize Allawi
Jordan-Iraq, Politics, 7/20/2004

Iraq's prime minister Eyad Allawi signed an economic and technology cooperation agreement with his Jordanian counterpart Faisal al-Fayez. This was during Allawi's visit to Monday to Amman, his first leg in the tour which will lead him to the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Lebanon.

The agreement which was read by the Iraqi planning minister Mahdi al-Hafez stated that Jordan will rehabilitate Iraqi military and security units on its lands and developing and renovating nine civilian sectors in Iraq in collaboration with the Japanese International Co-operation Agency JICA.

The agreement states to found a joint higher committee chaired by the two countries prime minister and founding a group of branch committees of various fields including commerce, industry, telecommunications, technology, education, health and transport, labor and training and issues pertinent to energy, oil, banking, coordination, and long term joint economic planning.

The Jordanian Foreign minister Marwan Muasher said that the talks also dealt with exporting the Iraqi oil to Jordan. Iraq used to give Jordan all its needs of oil, with half of the amount was for free and the second half at preferable prices before the collapse of the former regime.

The security file won the big part of the talks, under the accusations made by the Iraqi government to the neighboring states in being easy in preventing the sneaking of attackers through their lands to Iraq.

The two countries find a joint danger in the person of Abu Musan al-Zarwaqi, who was born in Jordan who is held responsible for the series of attacks in Iraq. Al-Zarqawi vowed to kill the Iraqi prime minister Eyad Allawi.

Following his meeting with the visiting Iraqi prime minister, the Jordanian king Abdullah II said that " Iraq's security is part of that of Jordan." He added that ending the acts of violence which target the Iraqi policemen and civilians is an objective that the International community should help the Iraqis to achieve.

However, the Jordanian Islamists criticized the visit accusing the Interim Iraqi government of being " hireling " to the Americans and called on the Jordanian government to halt dealing with it.

In a statement, the Islamic labor front party -- the largest opposition parties -- said " this government avails the occupation forces to bombard cities and civilians by planes and assassinate some people of Iraq by the hands of its President without trial."

Previous Stories:
  Jordan is ready to dispatch forces to Iraq   (7/3/2004)
  Iraqi national congress: Jordanian thieves fabricated al-Petraa Bank case against Chalabi   (6/9/2004)
  Palestinian refugees in al-Rweished camp return back to Iraq   (5/29/2004)

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