Jordanian royal detained in alleged plot against King Abdullah II

[DonViejo]

Source: Washington Post


By Joby Warrick
April 3, 2021 at 1:23 p.m. EDT

Jordanian authorities detained the kingdom’s former crown prince and arrested nearly 20 other people Saturday after what officials called a “threat to the country’s stability.”

Prince Hamzah bin Hussein, the oldest son of the late King Hussein and his American-born fourth wife Queen Noor, was placed under restriction at his Amman palace, amid an ongoing investigation into an alleged plot to unseat his older half brother, King Abdullah II, according to a senior Middle East intelligence official briefed on the events.

The move followed the discovery of what palace officials described as a complex and far-reaching plot that included at least one other Jordanian royal as well as tribal leaders and members of the country’s security establishment.

Additional arrests were expected, said the intelligence official, who like others interviewed, spoke on the condition of anonymity, citing security sensitivities surrounding the ongoing law-enforcement operation. A Jordanian adviser to the palace confirmed that arrests had been made related to a “threat to the country’s stability.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/jordan-coup-abdullah-plot/2021/04/03/2a517ed2-9498-11eb-a74e-1f4cf89fd948_story.html

[rickyhall]

1. Royalty; Same old, same old. Don't care.

[FarPoint]

2. I have in-law family who are from Jordan...my son married a lovely girl from Dubai...

They don't talk much about the Royalty...they have Palestinian and Syrian heritage....They come from Amman Jordan...lived in Dubai up until 2 years ago...moved to Edmonton Canada....can't visit just yet with the pandemic travel restrictions....Ultimately, I think I need to become more familiar with the culture...

[rickyhall]

3. I've known Jordanians and have respect for them. No respect for any royals.

[Aristus]

4. I have a sense of kinship with the Jordanian royal family.

My father was personally decorated by the late King Hussein for his participation in the neutral medical mission sent to Jordan during the Black September uprising in 1970.

My father spoke with affection for King Hussein until the day he died.

[yellowdogintexas]

10. I have a vivid memory of King Hussein walking in the processional

at JFK's funeral. The first row of guests behind the Kennedy Family consisted of heads of state and other foreign leaders who attended.

Churchill, DeGaulle, Hailie Selassi, King Hussein, Adenauer, Prince Phillip and Prince Charles, and of course others whose names I did not know. It was an impressive group.

Fast forward to King Hussein's death and the long list of dignitaries who came to offer condolences to the family and the nation. Clinton was president then;Jimmy Carter and Bush 41 traveled with him on AF One to Jordan.

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. Doubt (or cover-up) about the status of the prince

WP now has:

Prince Hamzah bin Hussein, the oldest son of the late King Hussein and his American-born fourth wife Queen Noor, was told to remain at his Amman palace amid an ongoing investigation into an alleged plot to unseat his older half brother, King Abdullah II, according to a senior Middle East intelligence official briefed on the events.
...
Hamzah was informed of the investigation by Jordanian military officers who arrived at his house with an escort of guards as elsewhere arrests were getting underway, the intelligence official said. While not placed under arrest, he was told to refrain from travel and from posting on social media, the intelligence official said.

BBC has:

Bassem Awadallah, a former finance minister, and Sharif Hassan Bin Zaid, a royal, were detained.

However, the official Petra news agency denied reports that the kingdom's former crown prince had been arrested.

Such arrests are rare in Jordan, a key US ally in the Middle East.

Petra said the former Crown Prince Hamzah bin Hussein, the oldest son of the late King Hussein and Queen Noor, was not subject to any restrictions.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-56626370

As the WP says, Hamzah was crown prince (ie next in line to throne) under King Hussein, until that title was taken away from him and given to Abdullah. Abdullah is the son of an English woman, Toni Gardiner, who converted to Islam and took the name Princess Muna on marrying Hussein. Some factions think Hamzah, the son of the Arab-American Noor, is "properly Arabic", but aren't so keen on Abdullah.

Correction: Hamzah was the first crown prince for Abdullah, his half-brother, when Abdullah succeeded to the throne. But Abdullah took the title away from him after 6 years. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Hamzah_bin_Hussein

[BlueMTexpat]

6. Thanks for your clarifications!

[yellowdogintexas]

9. Abdullah was the oldest son and was always the crown prince.

Queen Noor is an American of Syrian descent and became a Sunni Muslim upon marrying King Hussein.

King Hussein died on February 7, 1999 from lymphatic cancer. After his death, his first-born son, Abdullah II, became king and Hamzah became crown prince. In 2004, Prince Hamzah was unexpectedly stripped of his status as heir designate.[22][23][24] On July 2, 2009, Abdullah named his eldest son as heir-apparent to the throne, thereby ending the previous five years' speculation over his successor.[23]

[muriel_volestrangler]

11. Abdullah replaced his uncle Hassan as Crown Prince shortly before Hussein's death

which was what I'd been thinking of:

As Hussein's eldest son, Abdullah became heir apparent to the Jordanian throne under the 1952 constitution. Due to political instability, King Hussein thought it wise to appoint an adult heir instead, choosing Abdullah's uncle Prince Hassan in 1965.
...
King Hussein frequently traveled to the United States for medical treatment after his diagnosis with cancer in 1992. After Hussein returned from a six-month medical absence from Jordan in late 1998, he criticized his brother Hassan's management of Jordanian affairs in a public letter, accusing him of abusing his constitutional powers as regent. On 24 January 1999, two weeks before his death, Hussein surprised everyone—including Abdullah who thought he would spend his life in the military—by replacing Hassan with his son as heir apparent.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdullah_II_of_Jordan

[SheilaAnn]

7. Wasn't he kind and generous royal who gave President Obama a ride to the airport during his campaign

when the repubs refused to help him out. I remember some of this, vague on the details.

[elleng]

8. FWIW, re: Noor Al-Hussein (Arabic: نور الحسين‎; born Lisa Najeeb Halaby; August 23, 1951)[1]

Noor Al-Hussein (Arabic: نور الحسين?; born Lisa Najeeb Halaby; August 23, 1951)[1] is the fourth wife and widow of King Hussein of Jordan and was his queen consort from their marriage in 1978 until his death in 1999.

She is the longest-standing member of the Board of Commissioners of the International Commission on Missing Persons. As of 2011, she is president of the United World Colleges movement and an advocate of the anti-nuclear weapons proliferation campaign Global Zero. In 2015, Queen Noor received Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson Award for her public service.[2]

Queen Noor was born to a Syrian-American family,[3] as Lisa Najeeb Halaby[4] in Washington, D.C. She is the daughter of Najeeb Halaby (1915–2003) and Doris Carlquist (1918–2015). Her father was a Navy experimental test pilot, an airline executive, and government official. He served as an aide to the United States Secretary of Defense in the Truman administration, before being appointed by John F. Kennedy to head the Federal Aviation Administration. Najeeb Halaby also had a private-sector career, serving as CEO of Pan American World Airways from 1969 to 1972.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Noor_of_Jordan