Jordan Brotherhood postpones anniversary celebrations

Jordan’s Muslim Brotherhood said yesterday that it would postpone celebrations marking the 70th anniversary of its founding, which were scheduled for Friday.

The group took the decision shortly after the Jordanian interior ministry said it would not allow the group to hold the celebrations.

“The celebrations have been postponed because of measures taken by the government,” Brotherhood spokesman Moath Al-Khawaldeh said in a statement.

He added that the decision has also been taken against the background of what he described as media incitement.

Some people, Al-Khawaldeh said, are working to create crises that will deflect attention from the government’s economic, social and political failures.

Earlier yesterday, the Jordanian government said it would not allow the Brotherhood to hold its anniversary celebrations.

Relations between the government and the Islamist movement have been tense since members of a Brotherhood splinter group applied for a licence to operate in early March.

The license, it is said, would sever links between the group in Jordan and the mother movement in Egypt.