At boiling point

IT IS sometimes dubbed “the Hashemite Kingdom of Boredom”. That may not be very flattering. But while Jordan will never be an economic or political powerhouse, you can do a lot worse than be boring in the Middle East these days.

Jordan, after all, shares frontiers with both Syria and Iraq. From its foothold there, Islamic State (IS) has ambitions to expand the borders of its “caliphate”. Jordan itself has bred many a jihadist. Some have climbed to the top ranks of al-Qaeda or inspired it; 2,000 or so have joined IS; others are biding their time at home. Jordan is already home to roughly 1.3m Syrian refugees, not to mention hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and long-term Palestinian residents, many of whom are keen to head to Europe.