Khaberni - The advisory committee for the cement plant lands in Fuhais confirmed that the file of the lands of the Jordan Cement Factories Company (Lafarge) is not just an ordinary real estate investment, but a national issue where citizen rights intersect with the city and state rights to protect their environment and resources.
The committee explained that the only path to a fair and lasting solution is "through explicit reliance on the law and recourse to scientific, engineering, environmental, and social studies, away from any unilateral decisions or financial pressures."
Full statement text:
In its commitment to stay continually in touch with the community and to keep it updated on the developments concerning the lands of the Jordan Cement Factories Company (Lafarge), especially in light of the announcement made by the Jordan Cement Factories Company about offering approximately 140 dunums of the factory lands organized for sale, the committee wishes to present the following facts and circumstances to the local community in Fuhais, and we ask for your understanding in the detail needed to give you a complete picture:
First- The advisory committee had previously submitted to the Fuhais municipality its recommendations regarding the bases that the advisory committee found necessary to consider and adopt in any decision related to the lands owned by the Cement Factories including regulation or transfer of ownership, which included recommendations to undertake clear legal actions especially in case of transferring ownership.
Second- The committee affirmed in the first meeting between it and the Jordan Cement Factories at the presence of the esteemed head of Fuhais municipality committee that the vision of the committee is based on a comprehensive solution to the issue of lands including organizing the land patches to serve the interests of all parties and that partial solutions are absolutely rejected as they lead to distortions in the comprehensive regulation process and introduce new parties to the situation, complicating matters further. Consequently, an agreement was reached to proceed with a comprehensive negotiation path, and a negotiation committee was formed by the Jordan Cement Factories headed by Mr. Samaan Samaan and the engineering consulting office for the cement factories along with other members and in the presence of the insolvency agent, where the advisory committee and Fuhais municipality were notified of the decision to form the mentioned committee by an official letter sent from the Jordan Cement Factories also including a statement by the Jordan Cement Factories that the negotiation committee has the authority to consider all the projects proposed by the Jordan Cement Factories or Fuhais municipality or any new proposal presented by the committee.
Third- On the basis of the aforementioned, the second meeting was held at the Fuhais municipality building attended by the esteemed head of the Fuhais municipality committee and members of the advisory committee and the municipality staff, including the committee formed by the Jordan Cement Factories headed by Mr. Samaan Samaan and representatives from the engineering office and committee members in the presence of the insolvency agent and the engineering and technical crew of the Fuhais municipality where the meeting reiterated the principle of partnership in decision-making about the lands of the Jordan Cement Factories, and that the municipality and the committee will act in this spirit for the purposes of achieving everyone's interest based on objective, scientific, and comprehensive criteria for solving the issue, and following Lafarge's statement in its letter about the projects, the advisory committee and the municipality asked the Jordan Cement Factories to report whether the projects presented by the Jordan Cement Factories are based on scientific studies, where Mr. Samaan Samaan and the engineer representing the consulting engineering office confirmed that the studies – according to their statement - are existing and detailed studies were based on which the project proposed by the Jordan Cement Factories was suggested, and based on this, the advisory committee and the municipality requested the Jordan Cement Factories to supply the municipality and the advisory committee with the studies and asked for a deferment to Monday 17/11/2025 to send the studies, and the Jordan Cement Factories committee reopened the topic of selling the lands, where the matter was addressed again stating that the solution must be comprehensive and that this matter should be postponed to a later stage when the comprehensive regulation features are complete and agreed that the technical committees be given a two-month opportunity to develop their visions regarding the comprehensive regulation of all lands and their uses and then the matter will be considered based on that study if the stage is equipped for such a request and aligned with it and its provisions and the meeting concluded with that awaiting the delivery of the studies, where the Jordan Cement Factories requested an additional deferment to deliver the studies and consequently "glasoûr" was delivered containing a set of papers including a project proposal previously proposed by the Jordan Cement Factories prepared on PowerPoint, lacking any scientific or engineering studies that show the manner in which the project was prepared or the studies it was based onand land uses, and these papers will be worked on to be published and to enable the local community and specialized entities to review them to show that they are not based on scientific or practical studies but rather a project proposal not supported by any study especially with respect to traffic impact and environmental and social effect.
Fourth- The municipality and representatives from the advisory committee had previously met before the date of the second mentioned meeting (third item) with His Excellency the Minister of Local Administration to update him on what happened in the first meeting with the Jordan Cement Factories where His Excellency blessed this step, and made all the Ministry's technical capabilities and staff available to both parties to enable them to make use of specialized cadres from the Greater Amman Municipality and/or Public Works, and His Excellency initiated, to facilitate the negotiation path, by directing a letter to the Jordan Armed Forces to assist in the topographic lifting of the site of the lands and assigned a major engineering company to study the proposed streets and/or propose what it deemed appropriate at the Ministry's expense, where the topographic survey was conducted under the supervision of the Jordan Armed Forces of the lands using the latest scientific methods and the results of this survey will soon be delivered to Fuhais municipality and the Jordan Cement Factories, as the major engineering consulting company has begun to study the streets issue in preparation for also delivering them to the parties to form a fundamental scientific and engineering basis in the comprehensive regulation.
Fifth- The third meeting was scheduled to be held on Monday 17/11/2025 but it did not take place due to a request for an additional deferment to deliver the studies by the meeting will be set after the studies are received.
Sixth- The advisory committee as well as the city of Fuhais and the nation were surprised by the announcement published in the daily newspapers about the desire of the Jordan Cement Factories to sell parcels of the company's lands in Fuhais without any prior knowledge of the advisory committee or the municipality or any of the official or popular institutions of Fuhais about this matter where the advisory committee and the municipality also discussed the matter and the committee concluded the following:
First- The advisory committee confirms that it will not agree to any partial or piece-by-piece solutions and that this matter must be addressed through a comprehensive view of organizing the lands and their uses while the advisory committee and Fuhais municipality had shown openness to any scientific and well-studied proposals that achieve the interests of all parties according to the guidelines set by the committee in the recommendations it submitted to Fuhais municipality.
Second- The sincere national efforts doomed to ensure the success of the negotiation path and foremost among them the role of the Jordan Armed Forces, the constant support for the nation and the citizen, and the efforts of the Minister and the Ministry of Local Administration and its staff and the Greater Amman Municipality and the Fuhais municipality and its staff are great and appreciated efforts valued by Fuhais in all its spectra and components and fully recognizing their importance and that it is nationally unacceptable that these efforts be wasted or emptied of their content by a unilateral act embarked upon by the Jordan Cement Factories at a moment that was perhaps historical to end this file through a balanced negotiation that preserves the rights of all parties and protects the nation's resources and prevents its lands from being merely a profit and loss equation at the expense of national interest and citizen rights.
Third- The advisory committee is currently studying with Fuhais municipality and related entities the possibility of adopting the recommendations that had been previously submitted to Fuhais municipality to put them into effect to protect the nation's and citizens' resources.
Fourth- The advisory committee confirms that it will not make any recommendation or decision except within the framework of the recommendations it submitted to Fuhais municipality and within the conscience of Fuhais and its people, whom it holds in high regard for the level of trust it has felt from them and pledges to be faithful to this voice and a sincere instrument for transforming it into a tangible reality
Fifth- And also, the advisory committee, in the interest of transparency and clarity, informs those applying to purchase these lands of the fact that these lands will be under organizational studies that will impose financial and engineering burdens on these lands and their owners as legally required in terms of rehabilitation and submitting technical and engineering, environmental, and social studies before deciding on the organization of these lands or including them in the organization or determining their uses or granting licenses on them including the necessity to submit a scientific study from a competent entity regarding the presence or absence of any contaminated materials including the highly health hazardous material "asbestos" before proceeding with any work on these lands.
Sixth- Fuhais, represented by all its spectra, has sought and continues to seek an objective, fair, and comprehensive solution based on scientific and engineering principles that achieve the interests of all parties and that hiding behind the state of insolvency or invoking the financial distress claimed by the Jordan Cement Factories does not justify cutting the negotiation path nor does it negate the need to give this historic opportunity its deserving time and seriousness
Seventh- The fact that there are no supporting studies or foundations on which the projects proposed by the Jordan Cement Factories since 2016 are based undermines any scientific or practical basis for implementing any projects without study, which necessitates recourse to the studies conducted by the Ministry of Local Administration referred to in adopting a comprehensive view of organization and uses away from those proposed without any real or scientific basis.
Eighth- Fuhais will always remain proactive and positive towards any logical and scientific solution to reach a fair comprehensive view for the rights of everyone.
The advisory committee, from a position of national and ethical responsibility, confirms that this file is not a normal real estate file or a space for quick investment, but it is a national issue where people's rights intersect with the city's and the state's right to protect their environment, land, and resources_and the only way to a fair and permanent solution passes through explicit commitment to the law and recourse to scientific, engineering, environmental, and social studies away from any unilateral decisions or financial pressures
The advisory committee calls on all official, parliamentary, and popular entities to stand with Fuhais and its people in this crucial stage, and also invites the Jordan Cement Factories to review its position and immediately return to the comprehensive negotiation table with a spirit of partnership, transparency, and mutual respect, while at the same time, Fuhais with all its spectra renews its absolute commitment to national constants and stands behind the Hashemite leadership and national devices and institutions defending the land and the human and about a Jordanian city model conscious and responsible knowing how to defend its legal and national rights through dialogue, science, logic and under the roof of the state and the sovereignty of the law
The advisory committee for the cement plant lands in Fuhais
