Jordan's Cabinet Reshuffle Includes 9 Portfolios

Jordanian Prime Minister Bisher al-Khasawneh speaks during a joint news conference with Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati at the government palace in Beirut, Lebanon September 30, 2021. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
Jordanian Prime Minister Bisher al-Khasawneh speaks during a joint news conference with Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati at the government palace in Beirut, Lebanon September 30, 2021. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
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Jordan's Cabinet Reshuffle Includes 9 Portfolios

Jordanian Prime Minister Bisher al-Khasawneh speaks during a joint news conference with Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati at the government palace in Beirut, Lebanon September 30, 2021. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
Jordanian Prime Minister Bisher al-Khasawneh speaks during a joint news conference with Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati at the government palace in Beirut, Lebanon September 30, 2021. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir

Jordanian Prime Minister Bisher Al-Khasawneh announced on Monday a fourth government reshuffle that included nine ministerial portfolios.

According to a royal decree, Dr. Wajih Awais was appointed as Minister of Education, Dr. Saleh Al-Kharabsheh was named Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources, while Yousef Mahmoud Al-Shamali became the new Minister of Industry, Trade and Supply.

Faisal Yousef Awad Shboul was appointed as Minister of State for Information Affairs, Haifa Yousef Fadel Hajjar Al-Najjar, Minister of Culture, and Wafaa Saeed Yaqoub Bani Mustafa, Minister of State for Legal Affairs.

The Jordanian prime minister also named Dr. Muawiya Khaled Muhammad Al-Radaydah as Minister of Environment, Eng. Khairy Yasser Abdel Moneim Amr, Minister of Investment and Nayef Istitieh, Minister of Labor.

Al-Khasawneh had asked his ministers on Sunday to submit their resignations ahead of the cabinet reshuffle, in parallel with the government’s preparations to face the Parliament with the launching of its upcoming regular session in mid-November.

Shboul, the new minister of State for Information Affairs, succeeded to Sakhr Dodin, whose statements over the past few months sparked local controversy, and wide comments.

Shboul has extensive experience in the local and Arab press and had assumed senior positions in the Jordan News Agency (Petra) and the Radio Television Corporation over the past twenty years. He was also a media spokesperson at a number of summits hosted by Amman.

Bisher Al-Khasawneh was designated to form the government around a year ago. He previously assumed a position at the office of Jordan’s King Abdullah II, following a diplomatic experience as the kingdom’s ambassador to Cairo and Paris.



Lebanon's Caretaker Prime Minister Visits Military Positions in the Country's South

Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati (C) arrives with cabinet ministers for a meeting at Benoit Barakat barracks in Tyre, southern Lebanon, 07 December 2024. (EPA)
Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati (C) arrives with cabinet ministers for a meeting at Benoit Barakat barracks in Tyre, southern Lebanon, 07 December 2024. (EPA)
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Lebanon's Caretaker Prime Minister Visits Military Positions in the Country's South

Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati (C) arrives with cabinet ministers for a meeting at Benoit Barakat barracks in Tyre, southern Lebanon, 07 December 2024. (EPA)
Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati (C) arrives with cabinet ministers for a meeting at Benoit Barakat barracks in Tyre, southern Lebanon, 07 December 2024. (EPA)

Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister has begun a tour of military positions in the country’s south, almost a month after a ceasefire deal that ended the war between Israel and the Hezbollah group that battered the country.
Najib Mikati on Monday was on his first visit to the southern frontlines, where Lebanese soldiers under the US-brokered deal are expected to gradually deploy, with Hezbollah militants and Israeli troops both expected to withdraw by the end of next month, The Associated Press said.
Mikati’s tour comes after the Lebanese government expressed its frustration over ongoing Israeli strikes and overflights in the country.
“We have many tasks ahead of us, the most important being the enemy's (Israel's) withdrawal from all the lands it encroached on during its recent aggression,” he said after meeting with army chief Joseph Aoun in a Lebanese military barracks in the southeastern town of Marjayoun. “Then the army can carry out its tasks in full.”
The Lebanese military for years has relied on financial aid to stay functional, primarily from the United States and other Western countries. Lebanon’s cash-strapped government is hoping that the war’s end and ceasefire deal will bring about more funding to increase the military’s capacity to deploy in the south, where Hezbollah’s armed units were notably present.
Though they were not active combatants, the Lebanese military said that dozens of its soldiers were killed in Israeli strikes on their premises or patrolling convoys in the south. The Israeli army acknowledged some of these attacks.