{"id":1739,"date":"2018-06-05T04:20:51","date_gmt":"2018-06-05T04:20:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/?p=1739"},"modified":"2018-06-05T04:20:51","modified_gmt":"2018-06-05T04:20:51","slug":"jordan-pm-hani-mulki-quits-after-austerity-protests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/2018\/06\/05\/jordan-pm-hani-mulki-quits-after-austerity-protests\/","title":{"rendered":"Jordan PM Hani Mulki quits after austerity protests"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The recent demonstrations in the country, which is a key Western ally, are the biggest in years.<br \/>\nProtesters have chanted anti-government slogans and clashed with police, who have fired tear gas and blocked roads.<br \/>\nThe demonstrators say a new tax bill backed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will hurt the poor and middle class.<br \/>\nThe protests have continued for four consecutive nights, and police say dozens of people have been detained and more than 40 members of the security forces have been injured.<br \/>\nWhy did the prime minister raise taxes?<br \/>\nMr Mulki had refused to scrap the bill, saying it was up to parliament to decide whether to pass it or not.<br \/>\nHis government said it needed the money to fund public services and said the new tax bill would mean higher earners pay more.<br \/>\nBut protesters feared it would further worsen living standards. In recent years, Jordanians have seen prices rise with salaries failing to keep up.<\/p>\n<p>Enable it in your browser or download Flash Player here.<br \/>\nSorry, you need Flash to play this.<br \/>\nMedia captionDemonstrators have scuffled with police<br \/>\nMr Mulki was sworn in as prime minister in June 2016. He is a former diplomat and government minister, and the son of former Prime Minister Fawzi Mulki.<br \/>\nOn Monday, he was summoned by King Abdullah who demanded his resignation.<br \/>\n&#8220;Prime Minister Hani Mulki submitted his resignation to the king this afternoon during a meeting at the Husseiniyeh Palace and the king accepted the resignation,&#8221; a government source told AFP news agency.<br \/>\nIn Jordan, the monarch has extensive powers and can appoint governments and approve legislation.<br \/>\nKing Abdullah has reportedly asked Omar al-Razzaz, the education minister and a former World Bank economist, to form a new government.<br \/>\nEarlier this year, sales tax was increased and bread subsidies were scrapped as part of a plan to cut the country&#8217;s debt.<br \/>\nMr Mulki said he hoped the reforms, which were needed to get Jordan&#8217;s economy &#8220;back on track&#8221;, would be complete by mid-2019.<br \/>\nWhy is Jordan important?<br \/>\nJordan is a key Western ally and was largely spared the major turmoil that led to the overthrow of long-term leaders in Egypt and Tunisia and the outbreak of war in neighbouring Syria in 2011.<br \/>\nRead more about Jordan<br \/>\nBut as a country with limited natural resources which now hosts over 700,000 refugees &#8211; most of them from the Syrian conflict &#8211; Jordan has been deeply affected by the events of the Arab Spring. The situation has been compounded by high rates of unemployment and inflation.<br \/>\nProtests have broken out in Jordan before, most notably in response to high fuel costs or the withdrawal of subsidies, but King Abdullah remains a unifying force.<br \/>\nThe country hosts foreign military forces active in the Syria conflict and is a major recipient of US aid. After the capture and brutal murder of one of its pilots by the Islamic State group in 2015, Jordan launched air strikes against it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The recent demonstrations in the country, which is a key Western ally, are the biggest in years. Protesters have chanted anti-government slogans and clashed with police, who have fired tear gas and blocked roads. The demonstrators say a new tax bill backed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will hurt the poor and middle class. The protests have continued for&#8230; <a href=\"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/2018\/06\/05\/jordan-pm-hani-mulki-quits-after-austerity-protests\/\">Read more &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":53,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1739","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/53"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1739"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1739\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1740,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1739\/revisions\/1740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}