Japan will provide Jordan with several billion yen in official development assistance to help the country alleviate its external debt-repayment burden and enhance domestic political stability amid a critical period for the regional peace process, government sources said Tuesday.
The "nonproject grant-in-aid" money will be extended to Amman before new Jordanian King Abdullah's expected official visit to Tokyo at the end of this year, the sources said. Abdullah ascended to the throne on Feb. 7, immediately after the death of King Hussein, his father, due to cancer.
The Japanese decision comes amid growing expectations of a significant breakthrough in the long-stalled Middle East peace process in the wake of moderate Labor Party leader Ehud Barak's victory over the Likud Party's hardline incumbent Benjamin Netanyahu in a prime ministerial election on May 17.