AMMAN: Jordan’s King Abdullah opened a newly elected parliament with a larger contingent of Islamists on Monday, giving a speech that took a firm line towards Israel in a sign of political unease in the US ally which has a large Palestinian population.

Authorities in Jordan have carefully managed dissent, even as war in the Palestinian territories and Lebanon ignited mass demonstrations against Israel, with which Jordan signed a peace treaty in 1994. Jordan has long worried in particular about the prospect of an Israeli escalation in the West Bank sending Palestinians fleeing across the border.