Letter accepting the resignation of Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour

In the Name of God, the Most Merciful, the Compassionate

Your Excellency, Dr. Abdullah Ensour,

Peace, God’s mercy and blessings be upon you.

I am pleased to convey to you and your Cabinet colleagues my greetings, respect and appreciation for the honest efforts you have exerted to serve the nation and fulfil your responsibility. Since we entrusted you with the government formation five months ago, you and your Cabinet have worked with all devotion, awareness and determination to fulfil the responsibilities I entrusted you with in the Letter of Designation, which conveyed a host of national priorities and measures necessary to counter the difficult challenges.

With God’s help, and through your efforts and diligence, you were able to realise a host of these responsibilities under a sensitive and critical domestic, regional and international situation, within the period of responsibility you were given and against the backdrop of a set of constitutional requirements.

Your honest national effort has had a positive impact on the nation’s path and on the cumulative positive work, particularly in terms of the government’s key role during the current phase, prompting a qualitative leap in the democratic transition process, and launching the parliamentary government approach, whereby the government played a positive role that culminated in its neutral, transparent and constructive stands throughout the electoral process, in its support to empower the nation’s new democratic institutions - the Constitutional Court and the Independent Elections Commission - to undertake their responsibilities with competence, in the preparations for municipal elections, and in opening up to the media and continuing dialogue with political forces and various segments of society.

The government has shown commitment to implementing a number of necessary national measures emphasised in the Letter of Designation, chief amongst which was strengthening the national integrity system, forming a committee of local and international experts to review privatisation policies and transactions since 1989, and launching a national employment strategy with the aim of providing more job opportunities to the country’s promising youth.

Now that we received your government’s resignation letter, which came as an embodiment of the requirements produced by the constitutional amendments, as well as our new approach in the democratic process, which is the foundation of comprehensive reforms, I accept the your government’s resignation, while reiterating my deep gratitude and appreciation to the loyal efforts you and your government have exerted to carry out the responsibilities of the transition stage, with utmost courage, sense of responsibility and self-denial, and prioritising national interest in countering Jordan’s current severe challenges.

Accordingly, I am entrusting your government to continue to perform its duties and responsibilities until a new Council of Ministers is formed on the basis of the parliamentary consultations.

I pray God Almighty to protect you all and grant your Cabinet success in your loyal efforts to serve beloved Jordan.

Peace and God’s mercy and blessings be upon you

Abdullah II ibn Al Hussein
Amman, 9 March 2013