By IRNA,
London : The British government says it is closely monitoring “what is obviously a very fluid and evolving situation” in Jordan following the replacement of the government.
“We will have to see how things turn out in Jordan and whether there is a similar pattern to what we have seen in Tunisia and Egypt in recent days,” said Foreign Office Minister Lord Howell.
“It is early days, and each country of course has its completely different and separate qualities and patterns of events, which may affect the outcome in different ways,” Howell said but admitted that the “threat of contagion is certainly seen there.”
“It is important that Jordan continues its programme of political and economic reform, and we will work with the Jordanian Government to support that goal,” he said during a brief debate in the House of Lords on Wednesday.
The minister was being asked by former foreign office minister Baroness Symons on the government’s assessment of current developments in Jordan, and the implications for the stability of the wider Middle East.
“Demonstrations are spreading around the Middle East. We hear today that demonstrations are planned in Syria, Algeria and even possibly in the (Persian) Gulf states,” said Symons, who also chairs the Arab-British Chamber of Commerce.
Howell said Prime Minster David Cameron had spoken with King Abdullah on Sunday, Middle East Minister Alistair Burt visited Jordan on January 20 and that the British ambassador there was “in regular contact with a great many people involved in the situation.”
“Jordan is a close ally and we value the support that it offers on regional issues such as the Middle East peace process. We are watching closely the situation in Jordan,” he told fellow peers.
Liberal Democrat peer Baroness Falkner pointed out that it was the second time that the monarch has dismissed the government in Jordan in about 15 months.
“Perhaps in the Middle East we need to have a mind-shift whereby we recognise that absolute rule by monarchs is possibly no longer the direction of travel that the people of the Middle East might wish to see,” Falkner said.
“The general wish of a nation like ours must be to see orderly transition, maximum stability and the development of democratically minded and balanced societies that can bring peace and prosperity to the entire region,” Howell said in reply.
He also accepted that it was a “possibility” that demonstrators n the Arab street were likely to take a “much more negative view about the Middle East peace process.”
“Clearly, the developments in Egypt will affect the outlook in the Israel/Palestine dispute and, depending on how other patterns evolve, that may well be so,” the minister said.
“From the point of view of Israel, things are changing, and there will need to be a reassessment. But exactly how it is going to work out it is too early to say,” he added.
Cross-bench peer Lord Hylton also raised concern about Jordan having to cope with large numbers of refugees from Iraq, which he said “is an unintended consequence of the allied invasion of that country.”
Former Liberal Democrat president Baroness Williams questioned whether there is any possibility of reviewing the current proposals for cuts in the BBC World Service in particularly to Arab countries at a time when moves towards democracy were crucial.
But Howell said that he did not think he could hold out any hope that the particular arrangement announced for the World Service are likely to be changed in that respect.