Wednesday, January 10, 2001
EXCERPTS :Oil deal.Media free-zone.Hamas 25.1.2000 

 EXCERPTS :Oil deal.Media free-zone.Hamas 25.1.2000
+++ "Jordan, Iraq sign oil deal", Jordan Times 223 Jan.'00

QUOTES FROM TEXT:"Jordan will not have to pay more than $300 million for the 35 million barrels of oil"

"The deal is separate from Iraqi oil exports under the
UN-authorised oil-for-food deal which allows Baghdad to sell oil to purchase essential goods under strict supervision."

EXCERPTS:
BAGHDAD (AFP) - Iraq will provide Jordan with 4.8 million tonnes of
oil, half of it free just like last year, under an agreement signed
here Saturday, officials said.

Jordan will not have to pay more than $300 million for the 35 million
barrels of oil, Jordan's Energy Minister Wael Sabri told reporters at the
ceremony where he signed the accord with Iraqi counterpart, Amer Al Rashid.
. . .
"Iraq's President Saddam Hussein is making a gift to Jordan of half of
the amount it's going to import - worth $300 million at the most and at
least $200 million," he added.

The agreed formula for Jordan's purchases has a ceiling of $19 a barrel
for crude, he said. "This ceiling will be retained as long as world prices
exceed this level, as is currently the case," Sabri said.

Under last year's agreement, half of the 4.8 million tonnes of Iraqi
crude that Jordan imported were free and the government paid a preferential rate of nine dollars a barrel for the rest.
. . .
The deal is separate from Iraqi oil exports under the U.N.-authorised
oil-for-food deal, which allows Baghdad to sell oil to purchase
essential goods under strict supervision.

{IMRA: So -- despite Jordan's concern for the wellbeing of the
Iraqis, Jordan accepts a $300 million gift from them.}

+++ "House gives media free zone cold shoulder", by Dima Hamdan, Jordan
Times 24 Jan'00

HEADING:" We cannot pretend that this zone enjoys freedom if the prime
minister can interfere and appoint the [council's] chairman - Dughmi

QUOTES FROM TEXT:" `Are we ready for the free media? Can the government bear the foreign media when it cannot even tolerate what is being said under the
dome and in the local press?' "

" `We must cancel the Press and Publications Law, allow Jordanian
investors to operate in this zone, and we must also deny access to the Z|ionist media.'"

AMMAN - The government's free media zone draft law did not receive a
warm welcome at the Lower House of Parliament on Sunday, where the
majority decided to postpone discussion of the bill until the
government provides more convincing reasons for its establishment.

... Although the assembly acknowledged the project's effect in
attracting foreign investment and reducing unemployment, several deputies said the preamble to the law was not in line with the draft itself and raised questions the government's role in the future activities of the zone.

Other deputies also wanted to reject the draft on grounds that the
Kingdom was not yet ready to handle free and unrestricted media, and for fear that foreign media in the zone would promote cultures that contradict
inherent Arab and Islamic values.

Deputy Sa'd Hayel Srour said the preamble justifies the draft in order
to have "a comfortable atmosphere in the Kingdom that allows the practice
of difference media activities in total freedom and in an adequate
environment that turns Jordan into an important free media forum."

However, he added, this does not apply to the case of establishing a
zone that is separate from the rest of the Kingdom.

"This is inconsistent. We can't turn Jordan into a free [media] pillar
by creating a free zone that looks as if it is outside the Kingdom and
does not comply with its rules," he told the assembly.
. . .
But Deputy Abdul Karim Dughmi said it was illogical that a free zone
would be administered by a special council whose chairman is appointed by the prime minister.

"We cannot pretend that this zone enjoys freedom if the prime minister
can interfere and appoint the [council's] chairman. This would make us look untruthful to other countries," he said.
. . . . . .
"Are we ready for the free media? Can the government bear the foreign
media when it cannot even tolerate what is being said under the dome
and in the local press?" asked Deputy Mohammed Abu Hudeib.
. . .
"There is a double standard here. On one hand, foreign media will enjoy unrestricted freedoms, but the local media has a low ceiling of freedoms because of the Press and Publications Law," said Deputy Nash'at
Hamarneh.

"We must cancel the Press and Publications Law, allow Jordanian
investors to operate in this zone, and we must also deny access to the Zionist
media."

Srour also told deputies who feared that foreign media would promote
offensive cultures that it was "too late for damage-control."

"All Jordanian homes have satellite dishes that receive at least 100
channels.
We can never control what we receive [on television] even if we try to
control the media in Jordan," he told the assembly.

+++ "Hamas backs Lebanon demand for refugees return", Jordan Times 23
Jan.'00

QUOTES FROM TEXT:"Peace also depends on `a fair solution to the issue of
Jerusalem,
which restores its Arabness.' "

"The liberation of Palestine is the central objective of Arabs
and Mulims even if there
is a settlerment' between the Palestinian National Authority and
the Israelis. Sheikh
Hassan Nasrallah said."

EXCERPTS:
BEIRUT (Agencies) - The Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, on
Saturday said it supports Lebanon's demand that Palestinian refugees
return
home.

A statement by the group said a delegation from Hamas headed by Khaled
Misha'al also discussed with Prime Minister Sa'lim Hoss regional peace
developments.

"The delegation confirmed the group's position rejecting attempts to
naturalise and displace the Palestinians and hailed the Lebanese
position
which supports the right of return for our Palestinian people," said
the
statement.
. . .
The Hamas delegation also included Musa Abu Marzouk who was expelled
along with Misha'al and two other Hamas leaders from Jordan in November

on grounds that they violated the Jordanian law.

[Hoss said] "There will be no real peace without stability and no real
stability without a
fair solution to the issue of the Palestinian refugees that respects
their right of
return," ... .

Peace also depends on "a fair solution to the issue of Jerusalem, which

restores its Arabness."

Hoss said Lebanon rejects the two vehicles advanced by "some Western
countries," to resolve the refugee problem.

The first, he said, is the refugee committee chaired by Canada in the
multilateral Mideast peace talks, boycotted by Syria and Lebanon. The
second is the Israeli-Palestinian final status negotiations.

The multilateral committee is only interested in "ways to alleviate the
suffering
of the refugees and improving their living conditions where they are
residing."

The Israeli-Palestinian talks "don't take into account the views of
Arab
countries where the refugees are living and which are directly
concerned by
the problem," he said.

About 367,000 Palestinian refugees live in Lebanon, at least half of
them in
12 refugee camps, according to U.N. statistics.

The Lebanese authorities fear that the refugees will remain here
indefinitely,
affecting the delicate balance between the country's various religious
groups.

Earlier Friday, the head of the Lebanese Shiite Muslim Hizbollah, whose

guerrillas are fighting Israeli forces in southern Lebanon, told the
congress
that "the Palestinians have a duty to continue the armed struggle."

"The liberation of Palestine is the central objective of Arabs and
Muslims
even if there is a settlement" between the Palestinian National
Authority and
the Israelis, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah said.

The Syrian, Iranian and Lebanese-backed Hizbollah would "continue to
oppose by all possible means any normalisation with Israel," even if it
signs
peace agreements with Arab states.

Dr. Joseph Lernre, Co-DIrector IMRA
www.imra.org.il

Reproduced by permission of IMRA, Independent Media Review and Analysis, Israel.
 
http://www.imra.org.il/story.php3?id=67