Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan

The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan (formerly known as Transjordan) is an Arab kingdom of the Middle East along the River Jordan. A former part of the British Palestinian Mandate, Jordan achieved full independence as of June 17, 1946, and has recently come to annex the West Bank following the 1948 Arab-Israeli War - doubling its population and agricultural output in the process. Jordan covers approximately 94,982 km2 (36,673 sq mi) and has a population of approximately 449,000.

Jordan is a unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy and is headed by King Abdullah I and Prime Minister Tawfik Abu al-Huda and has a bicameral Parliament with the Senate as the upper house and the Chamber of Deputies as the lower house. Despite being a constitutional monarchy, the king holds wide executive and legislative powers.

Though the official religion of Jordan is Islam, Muslims, mostly Sunnis, constituting a majority of citizens, 30% of the population is Christian and several other faiths have a minor presence as well. The official and most common language in Jordan is Arabic.

Jordan is a founding member of the Arab League, though nearly being expelled recently over concerns for its annexation of the West Bank, and has been among those backing renewed calls for decolonization and the withdrawal of Western forces from the Arab world, especially Kingdom of Egypt and Sudan which the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan recognizes as united.