{"id":87906,"date":"2013-09-21T17:59:51","date_gmt":"2013-09-21T16:59:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/yvesengler.com\/?p=430"},"modified":"2013-09-21T17:59:51","modified_gmt":"2013-09-21T16:59:51","slug":"harpers-love-affair-with-monarchy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/editorials\/harpers-love-affair-with-monarchy\/","title":{"rendered":"Harper\u2019s love affair with monarchy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Harper\u2019s Conservatives have a thing for monarchy, the more absolute the better, it seems.<\/p>\n

At home they\u2019ve put up portraits of Queen Elizabeth II and added the moniker \u201croyal\u201d to the Canadian Navy and Air Force while in the Middle East they\u2019ve strengthened Canada\u2019s ties to kingdoms from Morocco to Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n

Jordan\u2019s pro-US\/pro-Israel King Abdullah II has been the focus of significant attention with the Conservatives signing a free trade and military cooperation agreement with that country last year. Now the Conservatives are strengthening Canada\u2019s ties to a monarchy confronted by an influx of Syrian refugees, volatile regional geopolitics and popular protests. Even the aid the Conservatives are sending to Jordan for Syrian refugees is largely designed to bolster the country\u2019s monarchy.<\/p>\n

Over the past year Jordan has become a central staging ground for Syrian rebel groups. Weapons from the Gulf monarchies and the US are flowing through Jordan and the CIA is training Syrian rebels there. According to France\u2019s Le Figaro, Jordan has opened its airspace to armed Israeli drones monitoring Syria while the\u00a0Financial Times<\/em>\u00a0reports that the US has 1,000 troops and a number of F-16 fighter jets in the country.<\/p>\n

While Jordanian officials say they will not let their country be used as a launchpad for any Western military intervention against Syria, they recently allowed the US (and others) to conduct war games near that country\u2019s border. And three weeks ago Jordan hosted the military chiefs from the main opponents of Bashar al-Assad \u2013 the US, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey, France, Canada etc. \u2013 to discuss the conflict.<\/p>\n

Not surprisingly, the Syrian regime is unhappy with its southern neighbour. Syrian officials have said Jordan was \u201cplaying with fire\u201d in allowing the US and others to train and arm its opponents, which includes many jihadists who could end up turning on Jordan\u2019s regime. While King Abdullah II likely doesn\u2019t trust the Syrian rebels and is fearful of retaliation from his larger neighbour, Jordan is under significant pressure from Ryadh and Washington to back Syria\u2019s opposition.<\/p>\n

As it contributes to instability in Syria, Jordan is also a victim of the conflict. At least 600,000 Syrian refugees have crossed into the country of 6.3 million people. This has added to the pressure on a Jordanian monarchy that\u2019s faced a series of pro-democracy protests over the past two years. Additionally, the US military\u2019s growing presence in the country is not popular.<\/p>\n

Worried about the Jordanian monarchy\u2019s ability to survive this volatile political climate, Canada has worked to bolster the regime. Under the guise of helping Syrian refugees, Ottawa (alongside Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the US) has made a series of major aid announcements over the past year. $6.5 million for Syrian refugees in Jordan in August 2012, then another $13 million in March and in June Ottawa announced a three-year $100-million aid package to Jordan.<\/p>\n

Buried in Ottawa\u2019s announcements about the Syrian refugee crisis is the fact that much of the money on offer is for \u201csecurity programming\u201d. Foreign Affairs explains: \u201cCanada is providing equipment and vehicles to the Jordanian Armed Forces (JAF) to assist in their efforts to transport Syrian refugees from the border to registration centres. Canada will also provide equipment and infrastructure support to the Public Security Directorate (PSD), the Gendarmerie Forces (GF) and the Civil Defence Directorate, which provide security and other essential services within new and expanding refugee camps.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis [$25 million in] support builds upon a previous Canadian contribution \u2026 $9.5 million in material support was provided to the JAF to respond to initial transportation needs of Syrian refugees coming across the border, and $2 million in material support was provided to the PSD and the GF in their efforts to manage security within Zaatari refugee camp.\u201d<\/p>\n

On top of this $36.5 million in support for Jordan\u2019s security forces, Ottawa is working \u201cto mitigate the threat posed by Syria\u2019s stockpile of weapons of mass destruction\u201d, which will include more \u201cequipment, infrastructure, technology and training to the JAF, the Civil Defence Directorate, the Ministry of Health and other relevant ministries.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ottawa isn\u2019t openly admitting that its aid to Jordan for Syrian refugees is designed to prop up the monarchy, but it\u2019s obvious. In June the\u00a0Globe and Mail<\/em>\u2019s John Ibbitson noted, \u201cOttawa is concerned that Syrian violence could infect and endanger neighbouring countries, especially the Hashemite Kingdom [Jordan], with which Canada has good relations.\u201d<\/p>\n

But there isn\u2019t equal concern for \u201cneighbouring countries\u201d. For instance, there is a striking incongruence in the amount of aid Ottawa has allotted to Jordan versus Lebanon. Though it hosts 20% more Syrian refugees and is only 65% of Jordan\u2019s population, Lebanon has received much less Canadian aid for Syrian refugees. (It should be noted that Lebanon is wealthier than Jordan, but nonetheless the World Bank is estimating that \u201cSyria\u2019s conflict will cost Lebanon $7.5 billion in cumulative economic losses by the end\u201d of 2014)<\/p>\n

Ottawa\u2019s aid to Jordan is part of a series of efforts to back the monarchy. In 2012 the Conservatives voted into law a free-trade accord, which Foreign Affairs noted \u201cshows Canada\u2019s support for Jordan as a moderate Arab state that promotes peace and security in the Middle East.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to the trade accord, the Jordanian military has benefited from Canadian military support. Canada and Jordan signed a defence co-operation memorandum of understanding in the spring of 2012. At the end of last month the Chief of the Defence Staff, Gen. Tom Lawson, met his Jordanian counterpart and, according to the\u00a0Jordan Times<\/em>, \u201cdiscussed ways to boost cooperation and coordination between the two countries\u2019 armed forces.\u201d This meeting followed on the heels of another meeting between the heads of the two countries militaries in April and Canada\u2019s participation in a military exercise with 17 other \u201cfriendly\u201d countries, Eager Lion 2013, hosted by Jordan\u2019s armed forces.<\/p>\n

Foreign minister John Baird has visited Jordan three times since last August to discuss \u201cthe ongoing turmoil in Syria\u201d among other issues. What Baird and Jordanian officials almost certainly don\u2019t talk about is the country\u2019s pro-democracy struggles, which have flared up over the past two and a half years. The Conservatives were silent when thousands of Jordanians marched against the monarchy and for better social conditions in March and April 2011. A handful of protesters were killed and hundreds arrested in a country that prosecutes individuals for \u201cextending one\u2019s tongue\u201d (having a big mouth) against the King.<\/p>\n

A few months after the \u201cArab Spring\u201d protests Foreign minister Baird claimed: \u201cKing Abdullah II in Jordan has really expedited reforms they were already working on.\u201d But Baird\u2019s positive portrayal of Jordan\u2019s reforms doesn\u2019t withstand scrutiny. Labour unions and independent media are heavily restricted while elections mean little. In short, Jordan remains an absolute monarchy with power concentrated in the hands of a ruling clique.<\/p>\n

Just the way Harper\u2019s Conservatives like it.<\/p>\n

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Harper’s Conservatives have a thing for monarchy, the more absolute the better, it seems. At home they’ve put up portraits of Queen Elizabeth II and added the moniker “royal” to the Canadian Navy and Air Force while in the Middle … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a>\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1235,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[461],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-87906","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-editorials"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1235"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87906"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87906\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}