‘DO NOT SUCCUMB TO US, ISRAEL PRESSURE’

The Muslim Brotherhood, Jordan’s main opposition group, on July 11 urged the government not to succumb to pressures from the United States and Israel which sought to impede the country’s fledgling nuclear programme for peaceful uses. “Such pressures, which seek to prevent Jordan from possessing new energy resources, represent a threat to the country’s security and should be rejected,” the group’s official spokesman Jamil Abu Bakr said in a statement. “Such Israeli attempts, which enjoy US backing, are designed to perpetuate Israel’s domination of the region through keeping our countries weak and poor,” he added. Abu Bakr was reacting to reports from Washington that the United States, due to pressures from Israel, was opposing Jordan’s exploitation of its own uranium resources to run a civilian nuclear reactor for generating part of its energy needs.