JORDAN recently witnessed widespread popular protests triggered by the previous government’s plan to raise taxes. The proposed hike was subsequently withdrawn by the new government, however, the move brought to the fore very important and pertinent issues facing the country.

As a matter of fact the crisis was purely an internal Jordanian affair caused by worsening economic conditions such as weak economic growth, falling incomes and rising unemployment rate. There are a number of reasons which can be attributed to the overall deterioration in the country’s economy but the primary among them which was also pointed out by Jordanian King Abdallah himself when he said that the border closure with Syria adversely impacted the export of Jordanian products to Europe by land at competitive costs.

Apart from this Jordan also had to bear the high cost of its fight against the terrorist organization Daesh (the so-called IS), which carried out a significant number of bloody attacks in the kingdom, and of course not forgetting the enormous cost of hosting the Syrian refugees who are living in the Jordanian territories.

As the popular protests within Jordan were a purely local Jordanian affair, there were also external forces with vested interests, which sought to capitalize on the crisis to further their own sinister political objectives.

The first among them was the coup regime in Qatar which used its media arm in connivance with the Muslim Brotherhood to blow the issue out of proportion by intentionally drawing comparisons with what happened in Tunisia and Egypt, which is better known as the Arab Spring. They used the language of clear incitement, resorted to blatant lies, gave false details and played with the feelings of the oppressed by linking it to the leaders (“heroes”) of some professional unions in Jordan (known as the Muslim Brotherhood).

The second force was the extreme Israeli right, both in Israel and in the United States, which returned to its old rhetoric that Jordan is the alternative homeland for the Palestinians, and that the time has come for an “immediate and decisive change,” ending the debate on the issue of a homeland for the Palestinians which is “final and complete”. There was a strange and suspicious consensus on the timing of the two voices, carrying out the same agenda but employing different arms and means to exploit the situation.

Undoubtedly, the public protests in Jordan were right and genuine against the imposition of high income tax amid worsening economic conditions. It was clearly a decision the previous government should have avoided amid adverse economic conditions. As the protest on the street was patriotic and civilized which was recognized by the king of Jordan himself, but the forces of evil, such as the coup regime in Qatar, the Muslim Brotherhood, the Zionist right and Israel tried to exploit the crisis optimally to achieve their goals. Jordan is a pivotal state in the region and its stability is of paramount importance and the recent events in the kingdom have clearly exposed the sincere as well as sinister elements.