France Press

AMMAN: Opposition Islamists warned Thursday that the makeup of the new Jordanian government amounted to a “setback” for the country’s reform plans, a day after the Cabinet was announced.
 
“It is a setback for reforms. It entrenches a pre-Arab Spring mentality,” Jamil Abu Baker, spokesman of the influential Muslim Brotherhood, told AFP. “The government itself and the prime minister prove that. This does not give hope to the people that change is coming. The prime minister is conservative and his views and position on reform are well known.”
 
King Abdullah II Wednesday swore in the 30-strong Cabinet led by Prime Minister Fayez Tarawneh, a former premier and royal court chief in the late 1990s who took part in negotiations with Israel that led to a 1994 peace treaty.
 
“The designation of Tarawneh and the composition of his government show that there is no will for reform,” said Hamzeh Mansour, chief of the Islamic Action Front, political arm of the Brotherhood. “It is a very traditional government of senior bureaucrats. At this stage, Jordan needs a government that wins the trust of people and meets their demands.”
 
The king appointed Tarawneh last week after the resignation of Awn Khasawneh, 62, an International Court of Justice judge who formed his Cabinet last October to become the third premier of 2011.
 
He asked Tarawneh to form a government for “a limited transitional period” to pave the way for polls before the end of 2012, accusing Khasawneh of being too slow, as Jordan “cannot afford any delay in achieving the needed reform.”
 
Jordan has seen persistent Arab Spring-inspired demonstrations almost every week since January 2011.