Qatar offers 10,000 jobs to Jordanians

AMMAN: Qatar’s ruler offered 10,000 new jobs specifically for Jordanians during a two-day visit to Amman, Qatar News Agency said Sunday, a sign of warming relations between the two states.

Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani announced the creation of “10,000 jobs in Qatar for our Jordanian brothers, in addition to the 10,000 jobs already announced in August 2018”, state-run QNA wrote on Twitter.

Lacking in natural resources and reliant on foreign aid, Jordan’s unemployment rate is 18.5 percent and the poverty rate over 15 percent, according to official figures. The kingdom reduced its diplomatic presence in Doha in June 2017 after Saudi Arabia and its allies Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt severed diplomatic ties with Qatar, accusing it of supporting “terrorists” and of being too close to Iran.

The Qatari emir, who arrived in Jordan earlier on Sunday, also pledged “$30 million in assistance” to the kingdom’s military pension fund, QNA added.

King Abdullah II and the emir discussed “regional crises and the need to find political solutions”, a statement from the royal palace said. The pair also discussed the need to support the Palestinians in obtaining their rights, in particular to “a sovereign state... with east Jerusalem as its capital”, the statement added.