Almost immediately after the second US-Israeli aggression against Iran started on Saturday, February 28, Israel halted the export of natural gas to Jordan and to Egypt, allegedly for security reasons.
Tel Aviv claimed that the move came after the Israeli government ordered the shutdown of the Leviathan natural gas field, declaring force majeure in light of regional developments.
“The enemy’s gas is occupation”, says Jordanian grassroots
Israel’s suspension of the gas supply to Jordan has deepened the concerns of the Jordanian grassroots, who have, for decades, rejected any form of normalization or cooperation between their country and the Israeli occupation.
Jordan first signed a letter of intent to import gas from Israel in 2014. The official agreement was sealed in 2016 and gas pumping began in 2020. Today, gas from Israel amounts to well over 50% of Jordan’s supply needs, with reports suggesting that the amount supplied to Jordan is increasing over time. About 3 bcm has been supplied annually in recent years. A massive economic shift for the country, from zero before 2019.
Read more: “Occupation’s nightmare” continues despite Jordanian authorities’ crackdown
“The enemy’s gas is occupation”, is a motto that has resonated among Jordanians since 2014, without finding its way to decision makers in the Jordanian government. The motto was adopted by the Jordanian National Campaign Against Gas Agreement with the Zionist Entity about 12 years ago, according to the campaign’s secretary, Mohammad al-Absi.
Peoples Dispatch spoke to Mohammad Al-Absi to learn more about the campaign, its efforts during the past decade, and its reaction to the recent interruption of the gas supply by Israel.
Al-Absi clarified that the campaign was launched in 2014, after the Jordanian government moved to import “stolen Palestinian natural gas” from Israel.
The campaign has been sounding the alarm ever since about the risks of enabling Israel to control such a vital energy source, calling for the cancellation of the deal even before it was signed.
“Between 2014 and 2016, the campaign organized regular marches, conferences, events and activities, calling for the suspension of the letter of intent and not signing the agreement. Those calls soon converted into public opinion,” Al-Absi said.
Moreover, he pointed out that activism against the deal further escalated, and the campaign expanded its efforts between 2016 and 2020 after the agreement was signed. This was carried out in different forms, including popular demonstrations, press conferences and legal procedures because the deal is considered unlawful.
“The campaign filed many judicial notice applications against the government officials, who were found responsible for signing the agreement, which Jordan does not need to reach. We provided evidence that alternatives have been available, and also highlighted all the failures within the agreement,” the Jordanian activist explained.
Al-Absi added that the campaign has continued its efforts, demanding the cancellation of the agreement beyond 2020, when Israel began to pump gas to Jordan.
He noted that the current interruption of gas supply to Jordan by the Israeli government is not the first, as it happened before during Israel’s former aggression on the Gaza strip in 2021.
Media reports also indicate that Israel stopped exporting gas to Jordan temporarily in June 2025, during the 12-day US-Israeli aggression against Iran.
Al-Absi insisted that the frequent cut-off in gas supply makes ending the deal with Israel more necessary than ever.
“ًOur calls for the cancellation of the agreement stem from national and moral motivations based on anti-normalization considerations, because this gas is stolen from the occupied Palestinian territories,” he asserted.
Al-Absi affirmed that “the public mood of Jordanian grassroots that represents the general national stance, has rejected all forms of relations with the Zionist entity, including the Israel-Jordan Peace treaty known as ‘Wadi Araba’, and other energy and water deals.”
He further warned that signing water and energy agreements with Israel exposes Jordan to strategic risks, as it allows the Israeli side to blackmail the Arab country at any geopolitical juncture, or “whenever it condemns Israel’s crimes and violations in the occupied Palestinian territories”.
The campaign has suggested gas import from available alternative sources
Amid the new crisis, Al-Absi confirmed that the Jordanian National Campaign Against Gas Agreement with the Zionist Entity has reiterated its demands that Jordan import natural gas from alternative sources and end the deal with Israel.
“Alternatives of gas supply from Arab countries or even from the global market have always been available, and Jordan had relied on those sources prior to signing the deal with Israel, which was imposed on us,” he argued.
Jordan agreed to transport the gas stolen by Israel to Egypt through its territories
Evidently, the Jordanian government has not only ignored all the voices of dissent regarding the gas deal, but also went for enhancing its cooperation with Tel Aviv by becoming a transit route for the transport of the stolen gas to Egypt in 2022.
Read more: Israel approves USD 35 billion gas deal with Egypt, three months after it was halted
“These deals have enabled the Zionist entity to achieve its goals on the economic and energy-related levels, helping it to become a major gas-supplier in the region,” Al-Absi maintained.
Al-Absi slammed Jordan and Egypt for paying billions of dollars to Israel for what is really stolen Palestinian gas, while there was no necessity for that. He accused these countries of “making up the necessity” for that gas, which deprived them from using their national gas resources as per the provisions of the signed agreements.
“The Israeli-Jordanian agreement stipulates that in case Jordan discovers natural gas within its territory, it will only be allowed to utilize a quantity that does not exceed 20% of that agreed upon with the Zionist entity,” he added.
The campaign slams Jordan’s emergency plan to handle the current crisis
In response to Israel’s gas suspension decision, Jordan’s minister of energy and mineral resources, Saleh Al-Kharabsheh, announced that an emergency plan has been implemented to handle the crisis.
The plan involves using alternative energy sources for electricity production such as “natural gas via a floating vessel, using diesel or heavy fuel.”
The minister also stated that switching to diesel instead of natural gas for electricity production costs about 1.8 million Jordanian Dinars per day.
Al-Absi criticized the plan for being costly, while “Jordan does not have to suffer from the consequences of Israel’s imperial aggression across the region.”
Meanwhile, the campaign issued a statement on Sunday, March 1, denouncing the continuation of the agreement, and cautioning of the repercussions of the emergency plan on the Jordanian people.
“Jordanian taxpayers will bear the burden of this alternative plan, which will increase the amount of their electricity bills,” the statement reads.
“The plan will also inflict loss and damage on different sectors that agreed to depend on the enemy’s gas,” it continues.
“Jordanian taxpayers have already incurred the cost of the popularly-rejected USD 10 billion agreement, while its alternatives have been possible and untapped,” the campaign emphasized.
The campaign concluded its statement by forewarning the government that “there is no excuse left at all to maintain the disastrous gas agreements with the enemy, which must be cancelled immediately and without delay.
In addition, the campaign urged the government “to begin developing sovereign domestic energy sources”. It also called for holding those who put Jordan and its people in this “dangerous situation” accountable and bring them to trial immediately, blaming them for imposing such a fate, which the campaign has “repeatedly warned of without anyone paying attention to it, until it has become a reality.”
The post Israel suspends gas exports to Jordan, underscoring slogan “the enemy’s gas is occupation” appeared first on Peoples Dispatch.
From Peoples Dispatch via This RSS Feed.