Jordanians protest gas deal with Israel

AMMAN

Thousands of Jordanians on Friday staged a protest march in capital Amman to condemn a gas purchasing agreement signed earlier this week between Israel and the Hashemite Kingdom.

Demonstrators from across Jordan’s political spectrum marched from the Al-Husseini Mosque in central Amman to the city’s nearby Al-Nakheel Square, shouting slogans against the controversial gas deal.

Marchers waved banners bearing slogans that read, "They [the Israelis] violate Al-Aqsa and we buy their gas" and "No to financing the Zionist entity from our pockets".

Another banner proclaimed: "Buying gas from the enemy is a violation of the rights of the Palestinian people."

Earlier this week, Jordan and Israel signed an agreement allowing Jordan’s National Electricity Company to purchase natural gas extracted from Israel’s Leviathan gas-field.

In a Monday statement, the Jordanian firm confirmed it had signed an agreement with Noble Energy -- a prominent U.S. energy concern -- for the supply of roughly 40 percent of its natural gas needs from Israel’s Leviathan gas-field.

The deal, the statement read, "enhances opportunities for regional cooperation and makes Jordan part of regional projects by the EU and the Union for the Mediterranean aimed at taking advantage of gas finds in the eastern Mediterranean".

Speaking to Anadolu Agency recently, Jordanian Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs Jawad al-Anani described Israeli natural gas as "one of the less expensive alternatives we are studying".

The deal comes despite widespread disapproval in Jordan for the notion of buying Israeli energy.

The past two years have seen a number of popular demonstrations in Amman against the proposed import of gas from the Jewish state.

*Reporting by Laith Junaidi; Writing by Ali Abo Rezeg