BEIRUT (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 19th January, 2020) The Jordanian parliament voted on Sunday against the gas import from Israel, the head of the Legal Committee said.
"According to the Legal Committee's decision, it is not permissible for the government and its ministries, companies and institutions to import gas from Israel," Abdul Monem Odat was quoted as saying by the state-run Petra news agency reported.
On Friday, hundreds of Jordanians protested the import of Israeli gas in downtown Amman. Demonstrators reproached the government for refusing to cooperate with a number of neighboring Arab countries offering fuel supply and demanded the scrapping of the agreement with the Israeli occupiers as well as the revision of all previously signed deals with the Jewish state.
In 2016, US Noble Energy, a company that executes Leviathan gas sales in Israel, signed an agreement with Jordan's National Electric Power Company Ltd for natural gas imports. NEPCO head Abdelfattah al-Daradkeh said earlier that gas transit from Israel to Jordan would begin in 2020. This would allow the country to save over $1 billion on energy costs amid its strong dependence on energy imports.
