US embassy cable - 03AMMAN4408

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 AMMAN 004408 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/16/2013 
TAGS: PGOV, PINR, PHUM, KISL, JO 
SUBJECT: NEW PARLIAMENT MEETS, ELECTS SPEAKER; ISLAMIST 
MEMBERS CAUSE A STIR OVER OATH OF ALLEGIANCE TO THE KING 
 
REF: AMMAN 4246 
 
Classified By: PolCouns Doug Silliman for reasons 1.5 (B)(D) 
 
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LOWER AND UPPER HOUSES MEET IN SPECIAL SESSION 
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1.  (U)  The Jordanian Chamber of Deputies (Lower House of 
the Parliament), elected on June 17, held its first special 
session July 16 and elected Saad Hayel Srour as President 
(i.e. Speaker) of the house.  Srour, who was speaker of the 
Lower House from 1993-97, received 65 of the 110 votes. 
Immediate past Speaker Abdul Hadi Majali received 40 votes. 
The appointed 40-member Chamber of Notables (Upper House or 
Senate) also began a concurrent special session without a 
significant change of leadership.  Zaid Rifai continues as 
Speaker of the Senate. 
 
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IAF CAUSES A STIR IN TAKING THE OATH OF OFFICE 
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2.  (U)  A minor row developed at the beginning of the Lower 
House session when the MPs took the oath of office.   The new 
MPs from the Islamic Action Front (IAF) refused to take the 
standard oath pledging allegiance to the King, instead 
swearing allegiance to the King as long as he remains a pious 
Muslim.  "We link obedience to a ruler as long as his edicts 
satisfy God and attain the interests of his subjects," IAF 
Secretary General Hamzah Mansour declared later to the press. 
 
SIPDIS 
 Many members of the House -- dominated by pro-Monarchy and 
conservative tribal MPs -- objected loudly to the IAF's move. 
 
 
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COMMENT 
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3.  (C)  Srour is well and favorably known to the Embassy. 
His management of the Parliamentary review and approval of 
the more than 200 "temporary laws" promulgated by the 
government in the absence of Parliament -- many developed 
with U.S. technical assistance -- will be key to cementing 
the King's economic reform program.  The IAF-caused row over 
the oath of office may indicate that the IAF -- which is 
heavily outnumbered and unlikely to be able to defeat 
government proposed legislation in a vote -- may be willing 
to break a little crockery on the floor of the Parliament to 
make its ideological points. 
 
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BIO NOTE 
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4.  (U)  Saad Hayel Srour is from the village of Um al-Jumal 
in the northern tribal areas near the Syrian border.  He was 
born in 1947 in Mafraq and received a degree in civil 
engineering from Riyadh University, Saudi Arabia in 1970.  He 
worked in the Amman municipality for four years, then worked 
with private firms in Saudi Arabia until 1981.  He was named 
a member of the National Consultative Council from 1982-84, 
and was elected to the Lower House of Parliament in 1989, 
1993, and 1997.  He was named Minister of Water and 
Irrigation in the cabinet of PM Badran in 1990, was Minister 
of Public Works and Housing under PM Tahir al-Masri in 1991, 
and also in PM Zaid Bin Shaker's 1991 cabinet.  He was the 
Speaker of the Lower House from 1993-97, and named to the 
Senate after the King's dissolution of Parliament in 2001. 
He resigned his Senate seat in May 2003 to run for the Lower 
House.  He is the son of Sheikh Hayel, leader of the Srour 
tribe, which has long supported the Hashemite monarchy. 
 
5.  (C)  Srour speaks reasonably good English, although he 
sometimes moves between Arabic and English in a conversation. 
 He wears a western-style suit and tie when in Amman, but 
dons traditional tribal robes when in his constituency.  In a 
conversation with PolCouns last week, Srour walked through 
some of his ideas for reorganizing the business of the 
Parliament.  He lamented the fact that past members of 
parliament (MPs) acted as individuals and formed alliances 
only for specific issues.  This, he argued, made it 
impossible to organize both the priorities of house business 
and speaking time on the floor.  He hopes that the presence 
of a well-defined Islamist bloc will encourage the formation 
of other blocs in opposition to it.  He is mildly encouraged 
that the new crop of MPs is somewhat younger and 
better-educated that past Parliaments (ref), and hopes to see 
the development of a "progressive" bloc that will support the 
King and government's reform agenda.  He also hopes to give 
greater power to Parliamentary committees which, in past 
Parliaments, have not held public hearings or kept permanent 
records. 
HALE