New cable car is a big hit with tourists in Jordan’s northern forest city

New cable car is a big hit with tourists in Jordan’s northern forest city
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The Ajloun Teleferique is the first project of its kind in Jordan. It opened to the public in mid-June and immediately proved incredibly popular with visitors from across the country. (Supplied)
New cable car is a big hit with tourists in Jordan’s northern forest city
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The Ajloun Teleferique is the first project of its kind in Jordan. It opened to the public in mid-June and immediately proved incredibly popular with visitors from across the country. (Supplied)
New cable car is a big hit with tourists in Jordan’s northern forest city
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The Ajloun Teleferique is the first project of its kind in Jordan. It opened to the public in mid-June and immediately proved incredibly popular with visitors from across the country. (Supplied)
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Updated 20 July 2023
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New cable car is a big hit with tourists in Jordan’s northern forest city

New cable car is a big hit with tourists in Jordan’s northern forest city
  • The Ajloun Teleferique, the first project of its kind in Jordan, offers panoramic views of the mountainous forest landscape
  • More than 20,000 people rode in it in the first 10 days and 2,500-3,000 people used it each day during the Eid Al-Adha holiday

AMMAN: Visitors are reportedly flocking in large numbers to the northern city of Ajloun in the highlands of northern Jordan, where a newly opened cable car ride is giving people the chance to experience stunning panoramic views of the mountainous forest landscape.
The Ajloun Teleferique, which was created by royal decree, is the first project of its kind in Jordan. Located about 70 kilometers northwest of Amman, it opened to the public in mid-June and immediately proved incredibly popular with visitors from across the country.
After taking a ride on the cable car with his family, visitor Omar Edajah said: “It was a breathtaking experience. Seeing the green mountains (and) the Ajloun Castle from above is such a splendid and unforgettable experience.”
The 49-year-old said he once rode in a cable car with his wife and four children in Antalya during a visit to Turkiye and had enjoyed the views over the green mountains and Mediterranean Sea.
“But I always said to myself, why don’t we have (a cable car) in Jordan, in Wadi Rum or Ajloun?” he said.
“At last, my dream has come true and now, a one-hour drive from Amman, we can always enjoy such an awesome experience.”
The cable car system covers a distance of 2.5 kilometers in about 10 minutes. It begins in the Eshtafina forest and terminates at Ajloun Castle, 1,250 meters above sea level. The cost of a return journey is 4 Jordanian dinars ($5.64). The total cost of the construction project, which began in 2020 but was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic, was 11 million dinars.
Arwa Hiyari, the CEO of the Jordan Free and Development Zones Group, which manages the new attraction, said that more than 20,000 people rode in it in the first 10 days after its official inauguration on June 20.
During the Eid Al-Adha holiday at the end of last month, between 2,500 and 3,000 people used it each day, she added.
The Ajloun Teleferique will boost the tourism sector in the area, Hiyari said, and the project had created a number of investment opportunities.
Mohammed Al-Deek, the director of Ajloun Tourism Directorate, said that between 40,000 and 50,000 people visited Ajloun on Wednesday this week, the Islamic New Year holiday, “with the cable car being their first destination.”
He added that number of people coming to the area each weekend to ride on the cable car is having a knock-on effect on bookings at hotels, resorts and other local attractions.
Jorda historically has focused more on the development of infrastructure projects at the southern tourist attractions of Petra, Wadi Rum and Aqaba, collectively known as Jordan’s Golden Triangle, than in the cities of Jerash, Ajloun and Irbid in the north, which is a more verdant part of the mostly desert country and is home to hundreds of ancient Roman and Greek sites.
During a visit in May to Jerash, Jordan’s King Abdullah II called for the development of more tourism projects in the city, which he described as “one of the most beautiful places” he had ever seen.
Jerash, which is about 40 kilometers north of Amman, is considered one of the largest and most well-preserved sites of Greek and Roman architecture outside of Italy.
According to recent data from the Central Bank of Jordan, expenditure by Jordanians on outbound tourism rose by 46.5 percent during the first half of 2023 compared with the same period in 2022, reaching $905.5 million. The bank said that in June alone, expenditure on outbound tourism was about $209 million, a 41 percent increase on June 2022.
The bank data also revealed that tourism revenue reached $3.456 billion during the first six months of this year, a 59.4 percent increase compared with the same period of last year.
Spending by Jordanians on tourism abroad reached $1.467 billion in 2022, an increase of 59.6 percent compared with 2021. Tourism revenue in Jordan increased by 110.5 percent in 2022 to $5.816 billion, according to the bank, exceeding the figure for the 2019 pre-pandemic period by 0.4 percent.
 


UN experts name Houthi official who tortured captives

UN experts name Houthi official who tortured captives
Updated 05 December 2023
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UN experts name Houthi official who tortured captives

UN experts name Houthi official who tortured captives
  • Abdulkader Al-Murtada is the head of the Houthi National Committee for Prisoners’ Affairs and the Iran-backed militia’s negotiator in UN-brokered prisoner swap talks
  • Experts’ judgment has confirmed previous claims made against Al-Murtada by former captives

AL-MUKALLA: A UN panel of experts has named top official Abdulkader Al-Murtada as an abuser of inmates in Houthi detention.

Al-Murtada is the head of the Houthi National Committee for Prisoners’ Affairs and the Iran-backed militia’s negotiator in UN-brokered prisoner swap talks.

The experts’ judgment has confirmed previous claims made against Al-Murtada by former captives.

In its 305-page report on Yemen, the panel accused Al-Murtada and other unnamed Houthis of severely abusing captives within the Central Security Camp prison in Sanaa, which is controlled by Al-Murtada. The treatment had resulted in the death of some detainees, and lasting injuries.

The experts said: “Prisoners are systematically subjected to torture and other forms of cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment, or punishment perpetrated by the prison’s staff.

“Based on the multiple reports received by the panel, various members of the prison’s management were and still are torturing the prisoners, including Abdulkader Al-Murtada.”

They added that prisoners were subjected to systematic psychological and physical torture inside the Al-Murtada-operated detention facility. Measures included forcing captives to stand for long periods, hitting their heads against the wall, dragging them, beating them with metal or electric wires, and banning doctors from performing lifesaving surgeries on tortured prisoners.

If the detainees asked for medicines, their Houthi captors sold them at exorbitant rates, although these had been received free from relief groups.

The panel also gathered evidence of extortion. Prisoners and their families were forced to pay high amounts to make brief phone calls or to meet, the report said, adding that the phone calls were often allowed “for the sole purpose of requesting families to transfer additional money, which will be administered by the prison’s management on behalf of each prisoner.”

Many former Houthi captives freed as part of prisoner exchange deals between the Yemeni government and the militia have said that Al-Murtada personally tortured them, or that they saw him and his colleagues mistreat inmates.

Citing the case of the kidnapped young Yemeni model and actor Entesar Al-Hammadi, along with other women, the experts said they were subjected to harsh mistreatment by their Houthi captors, with some of the women sexually assaulted and others put on trial.

The report added: “Women in detention are also sexually assaulted, in some cases subjected to virginity tests, and are often prevented from gaining access to essential goods, including feminine hygiene products.”

The report stated that the Houthis had also subjected more than 1 million Yemeni children to indoctrination and brainwashing. The youngsters had joined Houthi summer camps in 2023.

It added: “The panel documented that children as young as 10 years old are exposed to military training. The Houthis are also giving monetary incentives to promote a higher attendance rate in the summer camps by waiving the registration fees for the next school year.”

Hamzah Al-Jubaihi, a Yemeni journalist who suffered at the hands of Al-Murtada before his release in late 2021, thanked UN experts for naming and shaming the Houthi figure and urged the international community to sanction him.

Al-Jubaihi told Arab News: “This person personally tortures the detainees, both physically and psychologically, and he has a terrorist and sadistic mindset, as well as an inferiority problem.

“He was tormenting the inmates in front of me and stamping on their faces with his shoe.”


UN says ‘not possible’ to create ‘safe zones’ in Gaza

UN says ‘not possible’ to create ‘safe zones’ in Gaza
Updated 05 December 2023
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UN says ‘not possible’ to create ‘safe zones’ in Gaza

UN says ‘not possible’ to create ‘safe zones’ in Gaza
  • ‘The so-called safe zones... are not scientific, they are not rational, they are not possible, and I think the authorities are aware of this’

GENEVA: The United Nations warned Tuesday that it was impossible to create so-called safe zones for civilians to flee to inside the Gaza Strip amid Israel’s bombing campaign.
Israel had initially focused its offensive on the north of the territory, but the army has now also dropped leaflets on parts of the south, telling Palestinian civilians there to flee to other areas.
“The so-called safe zones... are not scientific, they are not rational, they are not possible, and I think the authorities are aware of this,” James Elder, spokesman for the UN children’s agency UNICEF, told reporters in Geneva via video-link from Cairo.
His comments came as Israeli troops battled Hamas militants in the southern Gaza Strip after expanding their offensive deeper into the besieged area.
Israel said it was at war with Hamas after the militant group’s October 7 attacks that killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and which saw around 240 hostages taken, according to Israeli authorities.
In retaliation for the worst attack in its history, Israel has vowed to eradicate Hamas and secure the release of all the hostages held in Gaza.
The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says the war has killed nearly 15,900 people in the territory, around 70 percent of them women and children.
As Israel’s offensive pushes deeper into Gaza, international aid organizations have warned that civilians in the densely-populated territory are running out of places to flee to.
Elder insisted that the safe zones declared by Israel “cannot be safe nor humanitarian when unilaterally declared.”
The pretense that there is somewhere safe for people to flee to is “callous,” he said.
He stressed that in a proper safe zone, “you can guarantee the conditions of food, water, medicine and shelter.”
Elder, who spent the past week or so in Gaza, stressed that none of that is assured in the areas designated as safe zones.
“These are entirely, entirely absent. You cannot overstate this. These are tiny patches of barren land, or they are street corners, they are sidewalks,” he said.
“There is no water, no facilities, no shelter from the cold and the rain (and) there’s no sanitation.”
Elder pointed out that in the overcrowded shelters that most of the displaced in Gaza have flocked to there had been around one toilet for every 400 people.
“Now remove those people and put them in... the so called safe places. It’s tens of thousands of people without a single toilet — not one — no clean water, nothing to drink,” he said.
“Without water, without sanitation, without shelter the so called safe zones risks becoming zones of disease.”


WHO: Situation in Gaza ‘getting worse by the hour’

WHO: Situation in Gaza ‘getting worse by the hour’
Updated 05 December 2023
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WHO: Situation in Gaza ‘getting worse by the hour’

WHO: Situation in Gaza ‘getting worse by the hour’
  • WHO representative in Gaza: Humanitarian aid reaching Gaza ‘way too little’
  • WHO deeply concerned about the vulnerability of the health system in the enclave

GENEVA: A World Health Organization official in Gaza said on Tuesday the situation was deteriorating by the hour as Israeli bombing has intensified in the south of the Palestinian enclave around the cities of Khan Younis and Rafah.
“The situation is getting worse by the hour,” Richard Peeperkorn, WHO representative in Gaza, told reporters via video link. “There’s intensified bombing going on all around, including here in the southern areas, Khan Younis and even in Rafah.”
Peeperkorn said the humanitarian aid reaching Gaza was “way too little” and said the WHO was deeply concerned about the vulnerability of the health system in the densely populated enclave as more people move further south to escape the bombing.
“I want to make this point very clear that we are looking at an increasing humanitarian disaster,” he said.
Peeperkorn said WHO had complied with an Israeli order to remove supplies from warehouses in Khan Younis. He said WHO had been told the area would “most likely become an area of active combat in the coming days.”
“We want to make sure that we can actually deliver essential medical supplies,” he said.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Monday appealed to Israel to withdraw the order. Israel denied asking for the evacuation of warehouses.


France imposes sanctions on Hamas Gaza chief Yahya Sinwar

France imposes sanctions on Hamas Gaza chief Yahya Sinwar
Updated 05 December 2023
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France imposes sanctions on Hamas Gaza chief Yahya Sinwar

France imposes sanctions on Hamas Gaza chief Yahya Sinwar
  • France is working with partners to impose sanctions on Hamas individuals

PARIS: France on Tuesday imposed asset freezes on Hamas Gaza chief Yahya Sinwar, the latest leader from the Islamist group to be added to its national sanctions list, according to a decree published in the country’s official journal.
France on Nov. 13 imposed sanctions at a national level on Hamas military commander Mohammed Deif and his deputy, Marwan Issa.
It is working with partners to impose sanctions on Hamas individuals and its financing network at European Union level, diplomats have said.


Jordan army say three killed in drug bust at Syria border

Jordan army say three killed in drug bust at Syria border
Updated 05 December 2023
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Jordan army say three killed in drug bust at Syria border

Jordan army say three killed in drug bust at Syria border
  • About 233,000 Captagon pills – a mix of amphetamines – and quantities of hashish were found during the operation

AMMAN: The Jordanian army said on Tuesday it killed three drug dealers during an operation that foiled the smuggling of large quantities of drugs across the border from Syria.
About 233,000 Captagon pills — a mix of amphetamines — and quantities of hashish were found during the bust, it said.
The army said it had monitored a group of smugglers who had sought to cross the border and applied strict rules of engagement to shoot at first sight.
“We continue to deal with resolve and force any threat to our borders and any attempt to undermine and destabilize the country’s security,” the army said in a statement.
War-torn Syria has become the region’s main site for a multi-billion-dollar drug trade, with Jordan being a main transit route to the oil-rich Gulf states for a Syrian-made amphetamine known as Captagon, Western anti-narcotics officials and Washington say.
Jordan has blamed pro-Iranian militias, who it says are protected by units within the Syrian army, for smuggling drugs across its borders toward Gulf markets.
Damascus says it is doing its best to curb smuggling and continues to bust smuggler rings in the south. It denies complicity with Iranian-backed militias linked to its army and security forces.