Compass – Muhammad Saad

Former Minister Taher Al-Adwan asked about which is the least costly for Jordan, the gas agreement with the Zionist entity, the first of the Chinese project, “including the national, political and security costs?”. Are investments with American companies and loans less expensive?

Al-Adwan said in his tweet via Twitter, which I monitored:compass“The issue of the Attarat power station with China deserves us to search for (cost and return) for China as an investor who spent more than $2 billion on it in Jordan, which does not have the financial, industrial and technical capabilities to establish it. Also, calculate the cost and return on the country in light of the American work to impose projects normalization in the region.

In the year 2020, the Ministry of Energy, during the reign of President Omar Al-Razzaz, resorted to international arbitration procedures at the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris, on the grounds of gross injustice in the energy purchase agreement from the Attarat Oil Shale Mining Company, and Jordan is the fourth in the world in terms of reserves of this mineral.
A source in the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources revealed last Sunday that the arbitration procedures are still ongoing, and its sessions are expected to extend until the beginning of next year, provided that the verdict is issued after that date, that is, towards the middle of next year.

And believed Ex-minister China does not demand political and security costs, but it is a profit-seeking trader who expands its markets and the scope of its investments, stressing that China has become a source of concern for America and Europe because it threatens imperial financial and economic dominance.

He added, “Low-income countries in Asia and Africa went to set up projects worth hundreds of billions, projects that cannot be established through America and Europe, which impose conditions on poor countries that put them at their mercy and political and security influence, in addition to the benefits of loans and the interventions of the International Fund in internal affairs.”

Also read: Who bears responsibility for the “Atarat” disaster, and what is the relationship with “Israel”?

While US officials described the Atarat contract as one of Beijing’s “debt trap diplomacy”, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs declined to comment on the Atarat project, but defended Beijing’s investments in developing countries, and denied allegations of partner countries’ involvement in debt, stressing that China does not Never force others to borrow by force.

Jordanian losses in this contract are estimated at more than 200 million dinars annually, amid fears that the government will be forced to raise electricity prices for citizens by 17% after the introduction of this project on the electrical network at the full contract value.

Al-Adwan says that China can establish railways and subways in Amman and between cities, solve the transportation problem, and save the billions that are spent from the pockets of citizens on oil, transportation, and operating major projects that provide jobs.

He stressed that “whatever the cost of Chinese projects is, it is less than the political, security and national costs that stand behind projects to rely on stolen enemy gas and projects to link Haifa to the Gulf coast by railways through the pure land of our country,” noting that China provides huge funds for projects that only America offers. If it serves the Zionist entity and its influence.

This intersects with what the expert on energy affairs, Eng. Amer Al-Shobaki, said in previous statements.compassThe gas agreement with the Israeli occupation government and the Noble Energy Company would have been affected by the continuation of the Attarat project, by the decline in the quantities of imported natural gas, at rates ranging between 15-25%.

Al-Adwan pointed out that “the essence of the development issue in our country requires reliance on a foreign investor in light of policies that plunged the country into indebtedness based on borrowing in order to pay interest, not for projects. Which is better, Chinese or Western investment? .”

The Attarat agreement was concluded during the era of Abdullah Ensour’s government, signed by the Minister of Energy, Muhammad Hamid, on October 22, 2014, with the Attarat Energy Company, which at that time was a consortium of companies from Jordan, Malaysia and Estonia, to establish a plant to generate 470 megawatts of electricity through Direct burning of oil shale, which is widely available in the Atarat Umm Al-Ghadran area.