Israel will begin exporting natural gas to Jordan through a pipeline within two weeks, Israel’s Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz announced Dec. 3. While there was no official confirmation from the Jordanian side, Dima Tahboub, member of the Islamist-dominated Al-Islah bloc at the Lower House and a critic of the gas deal between Jordan and Israel, tweeted Dec. 6 that the countdown has begun for “the enemy to take hold of” our energy. She said her bloc will submit a draft law soon to bar the import of “gas from the Zionists.”

The controversial $15 billion, 10-year contract between Jordan National Electric Power Company and an Israeli-American gas consortium signed in 2016 has been criticized by lawmakers, professional unions and activists. Online campaigns have been launched on Twitter using the hashtag #StopGasDeal, and protests were staged in Amman and other governorates as a pipeline was being built between Jordan and Israel. 

When Jordanian lawmakers demanded that the Lower House review the agreement, the former government of Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour first said the contract needed to be translated into Arabic. Then, on Oct. 12, 2016, government spokesman Mohammad al-Momani said the deal was signed between two corporations, American and Jordanian, and not between two governments, and did need parliament’s approval.

Pressure continued on the current government of Prime Minister Omar Razzaz to reveal details of the agreement. On Sept. 16, Jordan’s Constitutional Court ruled that the agreement does not need parliament’s approval. The official text was never released as public record.