The Muslim Brotherhood on Tuesday said they were still interested in helping revive Jordan’s gas agreement with Egypt, despite having cancelled a planned trip to Cairo to encourage the Egyptian government to resume pumping gas.
Murad Adayleh, spokesperson for the Islamist movement, said the group decided to cancel the trip after officials said the country was close to reaching a deal with Egypt on resuming supplies through the Arab Gas Pipeline at previously agreed upon levels.
The gas supply from Egypt, which passes through the Sinai peninsula, is a major source of power generation in the country, but has been interrupted by a series of 15 attacks on the pipeline in the Sinai since former president Hosni Mubarak was ousted in early 2011.
The original supply agreement was inked in 2002, with a quota of 220 million cubic feet (mcf) per day, and was revised this year at a quota of 157mcf per day, but attacks on the pipeline forced Egypt to reduce the quantity of the supply to as little as 10 per cent of the original quota, officials said previously.
Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh announced on Monday that the government had almost reached a deal with Egypt to resume the supply.
Meanwhile, the Muslim Brotherhood spokesman said the group was coordinating with “dozens” of opposition groups in the country to organise more large rallies in the coming weeks, following a large demonstration in downtown Amman last Friday that drew over 10,000 participants.
