AMMAN - Egypt and Jordan have settled a gas price dispute and are focusing on ensuring a continuous gas supply to the latter, according to Egyptian Ambassador to Jordan Aboul-Ata Amr. In a statement to Al-Masry Al-Youm, Amr said Jordan understands that the new gas contracts should align with international standards. "Jordanians know that Egyptian former officials are being tried now because of the prices and conditions of previous contracts," he said, referring to Egyptian export deals that provided gas to Israel and Jordan at prices well below market averages. Jordan's Minister of Energy, Khaled Tukan, said during a visit to Egypt a few days ago that Egypt is fully aware of Jordan's gas supply needs and the losses it sustained as a result of three stoppages after attacks on a Sinai gas pipeline. Tukan anticipated that the two countries would sign a new contract soon, saying that the third pipeline bombing Monday did not affect negotiations. However, he said that the repeated attacks give the impression of loose security measures in Sinai. Amr denied rumors that Jordan had bargained for lower gas prices by threatening to deport Egyptian workers. There are 404,000 registered Egyptian expatriates in Jordan and another 100,000 seeking registration, according to Amr. Amr said that 98 percent of the Egyptian workers are intermediately skilled or unskilled laborers, and that while they accept low wages, they later cause problems when they discover the high cost of living in Jordan. He stressed that the embassy is working on a daily basis to resolve the workers' problems in cooperation with Jordanian authorities. Translated from the Arabic Edition
