AMMAN, 23 November 2007 — Jordan’s King Abdallah yesterday named a new technocrat prime minister after the current Cabinet resigned following this week’s parliamentary election, well-informed sources said.
“The new government will be announced Sunday and its members will be sworn in before the king,” the sources added.
The king officially designated Nader Dahabi to form a new Cabinet after Prime Minister Marouf Bakheet, who had headed the government since November 2005, submitted his resignation, the official said.
Dahabi, an engineer, is a former Cabinet minister and former chief of the national carrier, Royal Jordanian. Abdallah yesterday appointed the director of his office Bassem Awadallah as chief of the Royal Court.
The changes come in the wake of Tuesday’s general elections that returned a lower house of Parliament, overwhelmingly consisting of pro-government tribal representatives, independents, businessmen and retired army officers.
The Islamic Action Front (IAF), the main opposition group, suffered its heaviest defeat over the past two decades, winning only six seats in the 110-member chamber, compared with 17 in the previous elections of 2003.
The development took place after the king returned from a three-way summit with President Hosni Mubarak and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh ahead of a US meeting on Middle East peace next week.
Dahabi, 61, currently head of a special economic zone in the Red Sea port of Aqaba, served as transport minister from 2001 to 2003. He had headed Royal Jordanian from 1994 to 2001, and has also served in the air force.
Dahabi is expected to form a Cabinet comprising pro-Western reformists and conservatives who have held sway in previous governments, with the specific task of boosting the economy, officials said.
“His mandate after parliamentary elections is to focus on the economy, improving living standards and generating investments, and a better overall management the government,” said an official, who wished not to be named.
Officials said the new government under Dahabi, whose brother Maj. Gen. Mohammad Dahabi is head of the country’s intelligence apparatus, was expected to maintain Jordan’s traditional support for US policies in the region.
