Jordan king reappoints Nsur as PM

King Abdullah II of Jordan reappointed Abdullah Nsur as premier and tasked him with forming the new government after talks between his chief of staff and parliamentarians, the royal palace said. "The king has accepted the resignation of the (previous) government and charged Abdullah Nsur to form a new government," the palace said. On January 29 Nsur tendered the resignation of his government following parliamentary elections which were boycotted by Islamists, the main opposition force. King Abdullah had then instructed his chief of staff, Fayez Tarawneh to conduct consultations with members of parliament to appoint a new premier, in what was a new mechanism to involve the assembly in choosing the head of the government. On Saturday the palace said the king had received "a comprehensive report on the consultations conducted by Tarawneh with members of the assembly." Parliamentary sources told AFP that Nsur and Interior Minister Awad Khlifat were the frontrunners chosen by MPs for the post of prime minister. The parliamentary elections were won by people close to the regime, businessmen and tribal leaders, as the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood boycotted them.