The Jordanian Nuclear Reactor

Jordan has been classified by the U.N. as among the 5 most water poverty stricken countries in the world. This situation increased drastically when Israel diverted more than 90% of the Jordan River water into Israel: “Might is right”. In addition, Jordan has been experiencing longer duration of droughts as a result of the global weather changes. There are also the problems of population growth in a country where 90% of the land is barren desert. Furthermore, Jordan relies totally on the imports of oil from both Iraq and Saudi Arabia for the production of its energy.

This critical situation led the Jordanian government to develop a new strategy that will help it meet the challenges it’s facing. The Jordanian government has adopted the nuclear strategy to generate its needed energy. An agreement has been signed with South Korea to build a nuclear reactor. The project began where a canal will be constructed to flow water from the Red Sea for desalination to meet the population needs for drinking water. The canals will also flow water into the Dead Sea. It has been reported that the level of water in the Dead Sea has been falling as a result of nearly no water flow from the Jordan River to the Dead Sea.

Furthermore, the Jordanian government has signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and publicly announced that the nuclear reactor project w ill be a joint public and private project. This will provide the transparency needed so that the enriched uranium will be used for peaceful objectives. Fortunately for Jordan, a rich deposit of raw uranium was discovered in Jordan in 2007 that will facilitate its use for the nuclear reactor under construction. The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty permits Jordan to enrich its uranium for peaceful purposes.

Nevertheless, the Israeli government and the U.S. began to put obstacles in the way of the Jordanian nuclear project. First, Israel began its contact with the South Korean and French governments to try to stop the participation in the proposed construction of the Jordanian nuclear reactor. The Israelis’ efforts were unsuccessful. Moreover, the Zionist state adopted a policy more than five decades ago to prevent any state in the Middle East region from becoming a nuclear power. The present tug of war between Israel and Iran reflects this issue. During the past few decades Israel went to extremes by letting their secret service agents “The Mossad” assasinate Arab nuclear scientists. In addition, Israel bombed the Iraqi nuclear reactor in 1981 and the suspected nuclear site in Syria in 2007. The Israeli attempt to sabotage the Jordanian nuclear project is part of the Israeli strategy to prevent any Arab state from obtaining nuclear technology. The irony of the Israeli political strategy is the fact that Jordan has signed a peace treaty with the Zionist state, but this is not enough for Israeli politicians whose aim is military control of the region.

Since the Israeli attempts have failed, they turned to the U.S. government to do the dirty job for them. It has been reported in the international press (for example, the Wall Street Journal and aljazeeranet.nets) that the U.S. government has sent a team of experts to convince Jordanian government officials that in order for the U.S. companies to provide needed equipment for the nuclear reactor and the technological assistance needed, Jordan is advised to import the enriched uranium instead of enriching it in Jordan.

According to public news, the Jordanian government will not accept the American offer, since they have a large deposit of raw uranium in their country. Furthermore, from an economic point of view, the Jordanian government needs to create new jobs for the tens of thousands who are unemployed, including college graduates. Also, Jordan is under a heavy foreign debt that exceeds 8 billion dollars. The state only has 6.5 million people. The future potential of the nuclear reactor being built might also lead to the construction of more reactors, which will put Jordan in a good position to export electrical power to its neighbors such as Iraq, Syria and Lebanon.

The Jordanian government should completely ignore the U.S.’s request and should look somewhere else to purchase what it needs