AMMAN — Jordan's King Abdullah asked academic Adnan Badran yesterday to form a new cabinet to push forward a reform agenda after the government resigned, officials said. They said the monarch accepted the resignation of Prime Minister Faisal Al Fayez — a hapless former palace flunky aide and fall guy tribal leader — and asked Badran, 69, a member of a prominent family from the town of Jerash, to take his place.
Fayez was dismissed after mounting public criticism by parliamentarians and senior officials over the government's poor performance since it took office in October 2003. Jordan's religious party, strident opponents of Israel and of the US-led occupation of Iraq, have also called on the government to quit, saying it had failed to deliver greater political liberalisation.
| And they're big fans of "liberalisation", you betcha. |
They said that the arrest of leading critics in recent months was the latest phase in a suppression of civil liberties since a landmark peace accord with Israel in 1994.
Badran, who holds a doctorate from Michigan State University, had two brief stints as education and agriculture minister in the 1980s, during a long academic career that included heading several Jordanian universities. He was deputy director of the Paris-based UN education and culture organisation Unesco from 1994 to 1998.
| I knew I recognized that foul stench from somewhere. |
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