AMMAN (Jordan Times) – His Majesty King Abdullah on Tuesday urged the newly appointed General Intelligence Department (GID) Director Major General Feisal Shobaki to implement a development plan that enhances and modernises the department’s performance in protecting the Kingdom.

In a letter sent to Shobaki, His Majesty said enhancing the GID’s performance is necessary “so that it can protect Jordan and its internal and external interests within a forward-looking vision of modernisation, based on the cumulative expertise of this long-standing national institution”.

The Monarch also stressed the need to direct the department’s efforts to support the reform process “by employing new tools and approaches, enhancing training and professional development to enable our brave men to defend this country with utmost professionalism” while respecting legal frameworks and human rights.

“These are the pillars of our comprehensive reform process, for a new, pluralistic, democratic Jordan, in which all citizens participate in shaping their country’s present and future,” the letter said.

King Abdullah said Shobaki assumes his post “at a time when domestic and regional circumstances require strengthening the national sense of belonging, openness, transparency and accountability, and meritocracy” among cadres of the security apparatuses, which should “nurture the relationship between state and citizens, on the basis of mutual trust”.

“We count on you and all GID staff to set an example through your actions, to prove that the security establishment remains as it has always been, at the service of the country and its citizens, to protect the sanctity of their inalienable rights and freedoms, unwaveringly committed to serve their interests and needs,” His Majesty said.

Note by the editor: King ‘urges’? or King ‘orders’?