Jordan's King Abdullah swore in a new government Wednesday dominated by conservatives after the former prime minister resigned in a move politicians attributed to a power struggle with the security services. Prime Minister Fayez Al-Tarawneh was installed after the surprise resignation last week of Awn Khasawneh, a respected international jurist, and was given the task of organising new parliamentary elections as a first order of business. Politicians say the monarch privately has said his reformist agenda has been frustrated by conservative politicians who hold extensive power within the security establishment and are bent on preventing Islamists from capitalising on their wider regional gains in the aftermath of the wave of Arab revolts. During his six months in office, Khasawneh had tried to persuade the Islamist opposition to drop their boycott of future elections which the monarch has proposed to be held before the end of the year to accelerate Arab Spring-inspired reforms. Islamists, who constitute the country's largest political party, say election rules favor tribal East Bank constituencies and rural areas over the largely Palestinian populated cities. King Abdullah appointed Tarawneh, a US-educated politician who has previously held several senior government posts, on Thursday and asked him to speed elections which the monarch blamed Khaswaneh for slowing. Suleiman Al-Hafez, a former minister, was appointed finance minister, replacing Ummaya Toukan, a pro-reformist who had won the respect of international donors and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) during a long career as a central banker and stock exchange head.
