A monarchy under surveillance: who’s who in the Jordanian royal family

Last weekend, news threatened to put the already tense situation in the Middle East on an even more precarious balance and destabilize a family of seeming perfection. Jordan, a kingdom characterized by its stability and the kind face it shows to the world in a region cluttered with complexity, confronted a possible coup d’état against the ruler for more than two decades, King Abdullah.

The attempt was quickly quelled, but members of the royal family themselves were implicated. The country’s government accused former heir to the throne Prince Hamzah of being behind the attempt. In recent months, Hamzah, 41, has met with some of the tribes that wield power in the country due to their dissatisfaction with the political and financial situation there, made worse by the pandemic. The leaders of the army and the government accuse him of participating in a conspiracy against the security of the country and, in fact, Deputy Prime Minister Ayman Safadi went on to say on Sunday that “communications from Hamzah with a foreign intelligence agency about plans to destabilize Jordan” had been intercepted..

“Our country is used to meeting challenges and we are used to triumphing over them. In our history, we have defeated all those who have tried to undermine the homeland and we have emerged stronger and more united, ”Abdullah II said today in a speech picked up by the Jordanian media.

“The challenge of the past few days has not been the most difficult or the most dangerous for the stability of our country, but it has been the most painful for me because the discord was within our house,” said the monarch. .

King Abdullah himself tried to calm the waters and wanted to wash dirty laundry at home. On Saturday, he went to the palace of Hamzah, his half-brother, to resolve the issue with him and ask him not to threaten “the security and stability” of the country.. “He spoke directly to Prince Hamzah to prevent him from being manipulated [por terceros]Safadi said. For his part, Hamzah himself recounted in a video he recorded for the BBC who is under house arrest. In the footage, he accuses the country’s leaders of “corruption, incompetence and harassment of dissent,” but denies being part of the coup plot.

The point is, everything is inextricably linked in Jordan: family, politics and power. The protagonists of this story saw their destinies come closer and separate in the mid-1960s, the late 1990s and also the mid-2000s. But who is who in this story and why are their lives intertwined?

Abdullah II of Jordan is the eldest son of Hussein, who reigned in Jordan from 1952 (when he was still a minor) until February 1999, when he died of lymphatic cancer. Hussein was a much loved and popular monarch, with a long history, who has always lived in fear of being murdered. From where name his brother Hassan heir, 12 years his junior. In fact, at the end of Hussein’s life, while being treated for cancer in the United States, Hassan was regent: from July 1998 to January 1999.

Hussein married four times and had up to 12 children from these marriages. From the first, between 1955 and 1957 with Princess Dina, he had only one daughter, Alia. From the second, with Princess Muna (whom he joined in 1961), four more were born. The first was a man, Abdullah, in January 1962. When the boy was only one year old, Hussein decided to name him heir And push his brother Hassan out of the way to the throne. However, in 1965, with an Abdullah still a child, he decided he would prefer to have an adult behind him in case he died. And he took Hassan back.

Hussein divorced Muna and remarried. It was in 1972 with another princess named Alia, like his daughter, with whom he had three children. She died in a helicopter crash in 1977, then Hussein married his wife of two decades and until her death, the famous Queen Noor. With her he had four children, the eldest being Hamzah, who soon became the favorite of the monarchs and for whom Noor always bet for a future succession..

The situation remained calm for three decades. In 1992, Hussein considered abdicating in favor of his brother Hassan, but in the end he preferred to wait. Everything got complicated in January 1999. Then Hussein accused Hassan of having slandered his wife and children, harming the family and the crown, and having intrigued and abused his power. “In the midst of the suffering, bedridden in the hospital, I wondered why you were so interested in reforming the army,” he came to say in 1999, shortly after leaving the medical center where he was being treated for a Cancer.

Then it was time to make a decision: although Hamzah was the favorite of the king and Noor, he was still 18 years old, he was studying at the military academy in Sandhurst (UK) and Hussein did not make up his mind. A year before, the monarch had spoken with the tribes and local chiefs to make Hamzah the successor, but the pact was not closed and it did not transcend. So the chosen one was, not without surprise, Abdullah.

Barely a week after all these movements, Hussein passed away. Then Abdullah has sworn before the nation’s parliament to respect, yes, his father’s wish: that his heir be Hamzah. In fact, the first legal provision of the king who had already become Abdullah II was a royal decree by which he appointed the heir of Hamzah.

However, five years later, In November 2004 (just six months after Hamzah married and began to found his own family), Abdalá withdrew this privilege and opted for direct succession to avoid conflicts and problems.. Five years later, in 2009, officially named his son, Hussein, crown prince (in honor of his grandfather), who was then 10 and will be 27 in June.

Noor stayed on the sidelines, but he never liked the decision that Abdullah was to be king, or that Hamzah was subsequently removed from the succession. Plus, over the years, her glamorous halo has also been eclipsed by that of Rania, her stepson’s famous wife. Noor had claimed all the dynastic rights for his beloved Hamzah. Just like now, when he appears to have tried to betray his brother, he also raised his voice for him, “I pray that justice will prevail for all the innocent victims of these evil slanders.”

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