US embassy cable - 04AMMAN3348

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 AMMAN 003348 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/03/2014 
TAGS: PGOV, KDEM, KISL, JO 
SUBJECT: JORDANIAN PARLIAMENT ASKS KING TO CALL SPECIAL 
SESSION; ISLAMIST AGENDA LEFT OUT IN THE COLD 
 
REF: A. AMMAN 1452 
     B. AMMAN 0540 
     C. AMMAN 0304 
 
Classified By: Ambassador Edward W. Ghenm for Reasons 1.5 (b), (d) 
 
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SUMMARY 
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1.  (U) The Speaker of the Lower House of Parliament 
delivered a petition April 27 to the Prime Minister 
requesting an extraordinary session to debate 88 of the 
remaining provisional laws approved by the GOJ during 
Parliament's almost two-year absence.  The petition was 
signed by 71 of the 110 members of the Lower House.  The 
Islamic Action Front (IAF) had sought to expand the requested 
agenda of the special session to include the government's 
economic and educational policies, as well as "unscheduled 
topics," but the Lower House leadership resisted these 
efforts to prevent Islamist grandstanding and protect the 
palace.  In accordance with the Constitution, King Abdullah 
is likely to issue a decree formally convening the session in 
June, but is not required to accept the petition's suggested 
topics for debate.  End Summary. 
 
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NO SUMMER BREAK FOR PARLIAMENT 
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2.  (U) To no one's surprise, the Speaker of the Lower House 
of Parliament, Abdul Hadi Majali, presented to Prime Minister 
Faisal al-Fayez on April 27 a petition signed by 71 of the 
110 members of the Chamber of Deputies requesting an 
extraordinary session of Parliament to debate 88 of the 
remaining provisional laws promulgated by the GOJ while 
Parliament was dissolved from October 2001 to July 2003. 
Parliament approved approximately 40 of the 211 provisional 
laws at the conclusion of its ordinary session last month. 
According to the Jordanian Constitution, the King may summon 
the Lower House to meet in an extraordinary session "at the 
request of an absolute majority of the deputies" via a 
petition specifying the matters the House wishes to discuss. 
 
3.  (U) An almost identical petition requesting a special 
session signed by 66 deputies, including IAF MP Adnan 
Hassouneh (East Banker, Amman-4th District), had been given 
by MPs to Majali almost a week earlier.  He had refrained 
from presenting it to Fayez, however, after the IAF 
leadership complained that it had not been consulted.  IAF MP 
Azzam Huneidi (West Banker, Amman-1st District) told the 
media that the IAF was not necessarily against any of the 88 
laws designated for debate by other MPs.  But he claimed that 
the agenda needed to be broadened to include the government's 
education and economic policies in order to come up with a 
strategy to control the budget deficit and to further discuss 
the new school curricula.  He also defended the need to 
include "unscheduled topics" so as to keep Parliament "on top 
of" local and regional events. 
 
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SPEAKER RESISTS ISLAMIST DEMANDS 
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4.  (C) Majali met with IAF members April 25 to try to reach 
common ground on the issues for discussion in the 
extraordinary session.  Afterwards, Huneidi announced to the 
press that the meeting had been "positive" and that Majali 
"agreed to include our requests" in the petition.  However, 
Secretary General of the Parliament Faiz Al-Shawabkeh, who 
 
SIPDIS 
also attended the meeting, told PolOff April 28 that while 
the discussions were cordial, Majali made no commitments or 
promises to expand the requested agenda beyond the 88 
provisional laws.  Shawabkeh further said that he had spoken 
to many of the IAF legislators one-on-one and that most of 
them were not particularly adamant about broadening the 
session's agenda.  He opined that it was only when they all 
came together, perhaps not wanting to look weak in front of 
other IAF members, that they took on a more strident tone. 
 
5.  (C) According to Shawabkeh, Majali decided to risk 
criticism from the IAF and present a petition to Fayez that 
did not broaden the debate agenda request beyond the 
provisional laws.  Both Shawabkeh and Majali agreed that the 
IAF's demands were solely intended to allow Islamist MPs to 
"grandstand," as they had done during the regular session 
debate on the budget, educational reform and the peace 
process (see refs a, b, c), and would contribute nothing to 
productive discussion. 
 
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ROYAL PREROGATIVE 
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6.  (U) Even if Majali had accommodated IAF demands in the 
petition for an extraordinary session, the decision on items 
for debate would still belong solely to King Abdullah.  The 
Jordanian Constitution provides that the Lower House can only 
discuss during a special session "those (topics) specified in 
the Royal Decree convening the session."  The King is free to 
accept, reject or amend topics of debate presented by 
Parliament in its petition. 
 
7.  (C) Ali Al-Hindawi, Director of Parliamentary Affairs at 
the Prime Ministry, told PolOff April 29 that the King would 
most likely convene an extraordinary session of Parliament 
beginning the first week of June with a duration of 
approximately two months.  He further predicted that the King 
would limit debate to provisional laws only and that he might 
reduce the number of the laws discussed from the 88 proposed 
by Parliament.  In Hindawi's opinion, Parliament would be 
able to debate and adopt a maximum of 30 laws during the 
extraordinary session. 
 
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COMMENT 
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8.  (C) While Majali may need IAF support to be re-elected as 
Speaker during the next session of Parliament, he undoubtedly 
considered the cost of putting off the Islamists as far less 
than submitting a petition that would put the King in the 
potentially awkward position of rejecting a request from 
Parliament.  The lack of vocal criticism of Majali by the IAF 
for reneging on his alleged agreement shows that the 
Islamists were more interested in being publicly consulted 
than in forcing an agenda unacceptable to their colleagues 
and the palace. 
 
Please visit Embassy Amman's classified web site at 
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/nea/amman/ or through the 
Department of State's SIPRNET site. 
HALE