Three months, 6,000 men and no phones: Jordan reveals details of new military service

Men born in 2007 will be first called up in February – with draft dodgers facing jail

Jordanian military personnel have been deployed to drop aid parcels over Gaza. Reuters

Jordan's new conscription programme will start in February with 6,000 recruits who will serve for a mandatory three months and be paid a basic salary, officials have revealed.

Details are emerging a day after authorities announced a partial reactivation of national military service. It was last imposed in 1991, when Jordan was technically at war with Israel.

The announcement came amid an escalation in the Gaza war and Israeli pressure on Palestinians in the West Bank. Jordan has had a peace treaty with Israel since 1994 and is a major recipient of US aid and military support.

Army spokesman Mustafa Al Hiyari told reporters that the programme will start with men born in 2007. He said those who are not called up will have to obtain postponement permits to allow them to study or go abroad.

Recruits who enter the programme, he said, will not be allowed to use mobile phones while on military premises. But they will be allowed to take time off on weekends and will be given a salary of $140 a month. No women will be recruited.

Government spokesman Mohammad Al Momani said the authorities plan eventually to raise the number of recruits from 6,000 a year to 10,000.

“This is not just a military training programme. It is a national project,” Mr Al Momani said. He said those who dodge the draft will face at least three months in jail.

Jordan's armed forces have recently been deployed to airlift food to Gaza and stamp out smuggling from Syria. AFP

The announcement came as Jordan seeks to project a posture of tough policies against Israel in response to the war in Gaza. Jordan has halted co-operation with Israel on development and infrastructure projects, but still imports large volumes of water and gas from Israel.

This month Jordan publicly condemned remarks by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in which he expressed support for the idea of a “Greater Israel”, which would include Arab territory.

Jordan ended conscription in 1991, under which men between the ages of 18 and 40 had to serve in the army for two years. Jordan depends on the US for aid and has a defence pact with Washington under which thousands of American troops are in the country.

Jordan was the second Arab country to sign a peace agreement with Israel, after Egypt signed a peace deal in 1979.

Since the outbreak of the war in Gaza, Jordan has repeatedly said that there is no alternative to the two-state solution. The Jordanian military has carried out dozens of humanitarian airlifts into Gaza, joined by the UAE and European countries.

The war in Gaza, officials in Jordan said, has been accompanied by an Israeli campaign against West Bank Palestinians, raising the risk of another Palestinian refugee wave after the historic influxes of 1948 and 1967.

Jordan's armed forces have also been put into action to stamp out drug smuggling from Syria. In one incident this month, the army said it killed two people in a clash with a group of gunmen.

Jordanian troops periodically shoot down drones loaded with drugs that enter from Syria. Jordan's King Abdullah II and Syria's new leader Ahmad Al Shara agreed at a meeting in February that the two governments should co-operate on smuggling.

Jordan has also faced threats at home. This year the kingdom banned the Muslim Brotherhood, accusing the group of jeopardising national security because some of its ranks had sought to manufacture weapons in Jordan.

Announcing the new conscription plan on Sunday, Crown Prince Hussein bin Abdullah said Jordanians must be prepared to serve and defend their country. He said the programme would strengthen national identity and young people’s connection to their homeland.

Jordan's official Petra news agency quoted retired generals and politicians as welcoming the plans. “In an era of rapid and turbulent change, where regional crises overlap and pressures intensify, we are in greater need than ever of a trained, aware and capable generation,” said retired Maj Gen Hisham Khreisat.