Muslim Brotherhood Weighs Options in Jordanian Protests
By Rouba al-Husseini. Translated from As-Safir (Lebanon) by Al-Monitor, Nov 15, 2012

[....] It appears that the Jordanian regime is not yet ready to give up its economic system, which makes strong grounds for the Jordanian people to topple the regime. Jordanian author Mohammed Faraj told As-Safir that “since the beginning, people were betting on further provocations on the part of the authorities. The regime has yet to change its economic policies, which are based on systematic looting. As usual, it tried to distract people by holding legislative elections on the grounds that they will be the final step of the reform process. But the regime has never succeeded.”

According to Faraj, the most surprising thing is the timing of the decision to raise prices, which came before the elections date. This raises many questions as to the relationship between the Jordanian regime and the Muslim Brotherhood.

“Do the price rises come in the context of an arrangement between the US and the Muslim Brotherhood and the Jordanian regime, designed to smoothly manage the dispute between the Jordanian regime and the Brotherhood? Does the regime need an event as an excuse to postpone the elections in order to return to the negotiations table with the Muslim Brotherhood?” Faraj asked.

Moreover, Faraj stressed that the Muslim Brotherhood’s economic policies are no different than the Jordanian regime’s policies [.....]