I believe nuclear energy in Jordan will be done in such a way where it is a public-private partnership so everyone can see exactly what's going on," Jordan's King Abdullah in an interview with The Wall Street Journal
– Edited by April Murelio –
According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, U.S. officials are negotiating a nuclear-cooperation agreement with Jordan, America's closest Arab ally in the region, reported Monday.
"I believe nuclear energy in Jordan will be done in such a way where it is a public-private partnership so everyone can see exactly what's going on," Jordan's King Abdullah in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. "If we can be the model of transparency, it will push others."
King Abdullah was also quoted as saying in the dispatch he wants to reduce Jordan's dependence on energy imports by developing nuclear energy.
"But it's a partnership that puts the Obama administration in a bind: It is trying to make good on its pledge to promote greater civilian use of atomic energy, without angering Israel and risking a Mideast arms race," the WSJ said in a dispatch from Amman.
Senior Jordanian officials say Amman can't renounce its right to produce nuclear fuel under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, both for strategic and economic reasons, according to the dispatch. They say that if Jordan cuts a side agreement with the U.S. on this point it would undermine the integrity of the treaty. They also say such an agreement would limit Jordan's ambition to become a "regional nuclear fuel supply and export center."
"The Obama administration views Jordan as a key potential partner in its global program to promote the nonmilitary use of atomic energy—part of a broader plan to increase pressure on other Middle East countries, particularly Iran and Syria, to bring transparency to their own nuclear programmes," the WSJ said.
The dispatch said, "The deal has catches for the Jordanians, too: The U.S. is demanding that Amman not produce its own nuclear fuel. That's a right Jordan enjoys as a signatory to the United Nations key nonproliferation treaty—and is reluctant to surrender, thanks to its recent discoveries of big deposits of uranium ore."