Oil-rich Arab kingdoms are spending billions of petrodollars to buy land and building skyscrapers in Jordan, sparking fear of a national sellout, the Associated Press reported. The government also has sold army property, setting off charges of corruption against King Abdullah II.

The radical Muslim Brotherhood has latched on to the foreign investment as evidence of an "eroding trust in the government" and corruption that hurts poorer sectors of society. King Abdullah dismissed the allegations as "fantasy" and maintained that Jordan, which is poor in natural resources, needs foreign investment. Two new skyscrapers are rising in Amman through a venture that includes investors from Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.