-Caveat Lector-
>From Reuters
"" The future king's leading role in the military should help ensure he
gets the support from the armed forces crucial to a smooth transition.""
"" His {Abdullah's} main role has been within the Special Forces, a highly
specialized commando unit dedicated to maintaining internal order. ""
Saturday February 6 8:03 AM ET
Jordan's Abdullah: From Soldier To Regent
<Picture: Reuters Photo>
Reuters Photo
AMMAN (Reuters) - Prince Abdullah bin Hussein, eldest son of Jordan's dying
King Hussein, was swept from special forces commander to regent after his
terminally ill father named him his heir last month.
The 37-year-old prince, who had been commander of Jordan's Special Forces
in an army which forms the bedrock of support for the ruling Hashemite
dynasty, assumed the powers of head of state Saturday as the king lay
unconscious in an Amman hospital.
Up until recently Abdullah had rarely been considered a leading contender
for the throne.
Energetic and enthusiastic, he showed more interest in night-time missions
with his forces patrolling for smugglers along Jordan's eastern borders
with Iraq.
Close associates say Abdullah, whose interests include collecting ancient
weapons, had little ambition outside the army, telling military sources as
recently as two months ago he had no wish to be king.
Ungroomed for the highest office, he was thrown into the international
spotlight by his father's shock decision last week to install him as heir
in place of his brother Prince Hassan, his designated successor for 34
years, and by the swift and deadly return of a cancer which the king
battled last year.
Barely had Hussein rushed back to the United States for more treatment than
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright arrived in Amman to express support
for the soldier prince.
Princes from royal families of Gulf Arab states and the son of Libyan
leader Muammar Gaddafi also came to Amman to voice their backing.
The future king's leading role in the military should help ensure he gets
the support from the armed forces crucial to a smooth transition.
But sources say his political abilities remain untested and question how
well-suited his sometimes impulsive enthusiasm would be to complex affairs
of state, dealing with other Arab leaders who have ruled for decades and
tackling the economic woes bedeviling his resource-poor country.
Abdullah was crown prince for a short time in his infancy but his uncle,
Prince Hassan -- King Hussein's youngest brother -- was appointed heir in
1965 to ensure the crown would not pass to a young child at a time of
mounting Middle East turmoil.
He has occasionally acted as regent in the absence of King Hussein and
other senior family members and has built up links with young members of
Gulf Arab ruling families.
His main role has been within the Special Forces, a highly specialized
commando unit dedicated to maintaining internal order. It helped to quell
riots in southern Jordan in 1996.
Last year he led a high-profile Special Forces operation to storm the
hideout of gunmen who had killed eight people in Amman. When the shooting
was over Jordanians chanted his name on the streets.
A few months later his father promoted him to major-general and diplomats
speculated that the king, the Middle East's longest-serving ruler, was
grooming him to take command of Jordan's land forces.
Although Jordan's constitution does not rule it out, the fact Abdullah had
an English mother, born a non-Muslim, had been seen as an obstacle to his
taking the throne of a tribal Muslim country.
Jordanians, especially those of Palestinian origin, have shown greater
affection for Prince Ali, son of King Hussein's third wife Alia -- a
Palestinian Muslim. Abdullah does, however, have a Palestinian wife.
More recently King Hussein had appeared to be preparing the 18-year-old
Prince Hamza, his eldest son by his fourth wife Queen Noor, for the throne.
But officials said the king judged it too risky to name an untested
teenager as next in line for the throne.
Prince Abdullah was born in Amman on January 30, 1962, the son of King
Hussein by his second wife, Englishwoman Toni Gardiner, known as Princess
Muna.
He was sent to school in England aged four but completed his high school
education in the United States. He later took one-year courses in
international affairs at Oxford University in England and Georgetown
University in Washington.
In 1980 he joined the British military academy at Sandhurst and served in
the British army in West Germany and Britain. He served in Jordan's 41st
and 90th armored brigades, the air force's Helicopter Anti-tank Wing and
the Second Guards Brigade.
In 1993 he was appointed deputy commander of the Special Forces, assuming
command one year later.
Abdullah married Princess Rania in June 1993. They have a son, Prince
Hussein, and a daughter, Princess Iman.
Abdullah is a qualified frogman and pilot. His interests include car
racing, water sports, scuba diving and collecting ancient weapons.
>From Associated Press
Saturday February 6 3:40 PM ET
King Hussein Balanced East and West
By ANTHONY SHADID Associated Press Writer
AMMAN, Jordan (AP) - The grandson of an Arab warrior educated in Britain,
King Hussein straddled two worlds, East and West, moving with ease from the
White House to barracks to Bedouin tents.
His ability to navigate myriad pressures that molded his desert kingdom may
have made Jordan the country it is - a surprisingly stable, relatively
developed nation in a landscape long defined by wars, revolts,
assassinations and tragedies.
Mixing substance with symbolism and humility with the dramatic, his reign
stretched across five decades.
``He was a master of this. He knew when to say it and how to say it. He
knew what to say and when,'' said Mustafa Hamarneh, director of the Center
for Strategic Studies at the University of Jordan.
Often that trait secured Hussein's survival in a country that first
searched for stability, then its identity.
As story has it, Jordan was created over a cup of tea in Cairo.
A Bedouin warrior arrived in Amman in 1921, saying he was seeking a change
of scenery to treat a case of jaundice. British officials, including a
young Winston Churchill, feared otherwise, suspecting the chieftain -
Hussein's grandfather Abdullah - was planning to attack their French allies
in Syria.
To appease him, after a meeting in Cairo, the British handed him Jordan,
whose borders ran in implausibly straight lines and sharp angles across a
desert expanse that no one coveted.
For King Hussein, the country's lack of logic was the least of his
problems.
Soon into his reign, he faced a restive population of Palestinians driven
from their homes in wars with Israel. His cousin, the king of Iraq, was
killed in 1958 in a bloody revolution. Radical Arab leaders in Egypt and
Syria castigated Hussein over the British, and later American, military and
economic aid that ensured his survival.
With a respected but small army, negotiation was all Hussein had.
``Since its inception, Jordan's relation with the West has been crucial to
its existence,'' said Michael Fischbach, an expert on Jordan at
Randolph-Macon College in Virginia.
``The king's ability to maneuver within both a very proud and nationalist
part of the Arab world and, at the same time, negotiate in the halls of
Western power have played a vital role.''
Hussein seemed a natural in the West.
A product of Britain's Harrow School and Sandhurst military academy,
Hussein never lost the formality - and martial demeanor - of a British
officer. He was a water skier, sky diver, race car driver and avid pilot,
from jet fighters to helicopters.
As a young king, he charmed President Eisenhower. President Nixon remarked
that Hussein was a world leader ``rather than simply a parochial monarch of
a small country.''
``He was not afraid of, I think, being seen as somebody who is very
comfortable in the Western world,'' said Paul Wolfowitz, a former Bush
administration official and dean of the School of International Studies at
Johns Hopkins University.
His standing and respect in the West have drawn parallels with an Arab
contemporary, Egypt's Anwar Sadat.
Like Hussein, Sadat's peace with Israel played poorly at home, where a
generation of Egyptians were raised on the sanctity of war with the Jewish
state. Both leaders protected their images in the West. Both, too,
displayed a dictatorial bent - Hussein banned political parties in 1957 and
suspended parliament in 1974.
Unlike Sadat, Hussein dodged the assassin's bullet - barely.
In 1951, a Palestinian shot his grandfather Abdullah dead as he entered
Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. A bullet aimed at Hussein bounced off a medal
pinned to the young prince's chest.
His very survival seemed in doubt in 1970, when Palestinian fighters
running their own checkpoints in Jordan's capital rose up against his
authority. Jordan's Bedouin army defeated the revolt in fighting that
killed thousands.
A great stylist, Hussein often responded with the dramatic gesture.
Despite the bitterness of the 1970 civil war, he granted amnesties to about
1,000 Palestinian guerrillas three years later. After imprisoning one of
his most vocal opponents in 1996, the king relented eight months later,
personally driving the man from prison to his mother's home.
In one of his more poignant moments, Hussein traveled to Israel after a
Jordanian soldier killed seven Israeli schoolgirls in 1997. He kneeled in
front of one of the girl's sobbing mothers, offering his apology.
``He was as comfortable in the White House as he was in a Bedouin camp
drinking tea, in a military barracks or in a university talking with
academics,'' said Hamarneh, the professor at the University of Jordan. ``He
was comfortable in all settings.''
>From Reuters
Saturday February 6 3:37 PM ET
Clinton Pledges New Aid For Grief-Stricken Jordan
By Steve Holland
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Clinton Saturday signaled strong support
for Jordan in the face of King Hussein's looming death, and he pledged $300
million in U.S. aid to help keep the country stable.
``The United States stands by Jordan and is determined to do all that it
can to support and strengthen it,'' Clinton said in a written statement.
He said the United States was also working with the international
community, including key allies and Group of Seven nations, to mobilize
additional resources to help Jordan maintain its economic stability.
The United Arab Emirates late Friday began steps to transfer funds to
Jordan's central bank, in an apparent move to provide the bank with
liquidity after King Hussein was pronounced clinically dead. The king was
unconscious and being kept alive by life support Saturday.
Senior administration officials said Clinton wanted to send more aid as a
sign of strong support for a friend and ally, and was not meant to signal a
sense of emergency in Jordan.
``We think it's important to demonstrate at this difficult time that Jordan
has friends and can rely on them,'' said one senior official, speaking on
condition of anonymity.
Clinton and much of official Washington have watched with sorrow King
Hussein's losing battle with cancer. Aides said that of all the Middle
Eastern leaders Clinton has worked with, he has been closest to the king
and relied heavily on his counsel in the ceaseless quest to bring Arabs and
Israelis together.
``At this difficult time, my thoughts and prayers, as well as those of all
Americans, are with His Majesty King Hussein, his family and the people of
Jordan,'' Clinton said in his statement Saturday.
The president and his wife Hillary were expected to lead the U.S.
delegation to Hussein's funeral upon his death.
Senior U.S. aides said they were starting to come to grips with the fact
that Hussein's leadership in the tumultuous Middle East peace process was
gone, although they expected his son and designated successor, Prince
Abdullah, to continue his father's policies.
Crown Prince Abdullah was sworn in Saturday as Jordan's regent, assuming
the powers of head of state.
``King Hussein has been a giant of a leader in terms of his commitment to
the peace process and his statesmanship ... I think the loss of that kind
of leadership is significant,'' said one senior official active in the
peace process.
``We would expect continuity there. But the role the king himself has
played, his personality, is something we will miss sorely,'' the official
said.
Clinton said that next week he will ask Congress to approve quickly $300
million in additional assistance -- $100 million a year over three years.
The aid is in addition to the $225 million in annual assistance the United
States plans to send Jordan this year.
The $300 million had already been promised but otherwise would be delayed
until implementation of the Wye peace agreement signed in October by King
Hussein, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian
President Yasser Arafat. That agreement is now in limbo.
``The United States stands by Jordan and is determined to do all that it
can to support and strengthen it,'' Clinton said.
He said the United States was also working with the international
community, including key allies and Group of Seven nations, to mobilize
additional resources to help Jordan maintain its economic stability.
Jordan's economy is burdened by heavy debt. In the next few years Amman has
obligations to creditors totaling several hundred million dollars. The
country still owes the United States $300 million to $400 million.
Clinton said the United States would support substantial rescheduling of
Jordan's debts to bilateral creditors through the Paris Club of creditor
nations, on the basis of an International Monetary Fund program.
The objective, said one U.S. official, was to give Jordan some ``cash flow
relief'' to help them through their short-term financial obligations.
Clinton said the IMF will play a leading role in marshaling international
support for Jordan. He said substantial resources can be mobilized quickly
under a new IMF program with expedited procedures.
The World Bank is also preparing to provide additional support, said
Clinton.
``These initiatives by the international community, combined with U.S.
direct bilateral assistance, will provide substantial resources in support
of Jordan's economic stability and growth,'' he said.
Still in the minds of many U.S. officials was the image of King Hussein
leaving his sickbed to help seal a peace agreement in a late-night
appearance during marathon talks in October at the Wye Plantation in
Maryland between Clinton, Arafat and Netanyahu.
``The most amazing part of the week at Wye was what happened when the king
walked in the room. You had people who had been together for far too long,
very tired and very short tempered, and when the king walked in the whole
atmosphere changed because they had such respect for him,'' said one
official. ``When he left, everyone in the room had a different attitude.''
~~~~~~~~~~~~
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