Hussein bin Talal ( ar, الحسين بن طلال, ''Al-Ḥusayn ibn Ṭalāl''; 14 November 1935 – 7 February 1999) was
King of Jordan
The king of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan is Jordan's head of state and monarch. He serves as the head of the Jordanian monarchy—the Hashemite dynasty. The king is addressed as His Majesty ().
Jordan is a constitutional monarchy. However, ...
from 11 August 1952 until
his death in 1999. As a member of the
Hashemite
The Hashemites ( ar, الهاشميون, al-Hāshimīyūn), also House of Hashim, are the royal family of Jordan, which they have ruled since 1921, and were the royal family of the kingdoms of Hejaz (1916–1925), Syria (1920), and Iraq (1921 ...
dynasty, the royal family of
Jordan
Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...
since 1921, Hussein was a
40th-generation direct descendant of
Muhammad
Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 Common Era, CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Muhammad in Islam, Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet Divine inspiration, di ...
.
Hussein was born in
Amman
Amman (; ar, عَمَّان, ' ; Ammonite language, Ammonite: 𐤓𐤁𐤕 𐤏𐤌𐤍 ''Rabat ʻAmān'') is the capital and largest city of Jordan, and the country's economic, political, and cultural center. With a population of 4,061,150 a ...
as the eldest child of
Talal bin Abdullah and
Zein al-Sharaf bint Jamil
Zein al-Sharaf bint Jamil ( ar, زين الشرف بنت جميل; 2 August 1916 – 26 April 1994) was the Queen of Jordan as the wife of King Talal. Queen Zein was the mother of King Hussein.
Family
She was born in Alexandria, Egypt, into a fami ...
. Talal was then the heir to his own father,
King Abdullah I
AbdullahI bin Al-Hussein ( ar, عبد الله الأول بن الحسين, translit=Abd Allāh al-Awwal bin al-Husayn, 2 February 1882 – 20 July 1951) was the ruler of Jordan from 11 April 1921 until his assassination in 1951. He was the Emir ...
. Hussein began his schooling in Amman, continuing his education abroad. After Talal became king in 1951, Hussein was named
heir apparent
An heir apparent, often shortened to heir, is a person who is first in an order of succession and cannot be displaced from inheriting by the birth of another person; a person who is first in the order of succession but can be displaced by the b ...
. The
Jordanian Parliament
The Parliament of Jordan ( ar, مجلس الأمة ') is the bicameral Jordanian national assembly. Established by the 1952 Constitution, the legislature consists of two houses: the Senate ( ar, مجلس الأعيان ''Majlis Al-Aayan'') ...
forced Talal to
abdicate
Abdication is the act of formally relinquishing monarchical authority. Abdications have played various roles in the succession procedures of monarchies. While some cultures have viewed abdication as an extreme abandonment of duty, in other societ ...
a year later due to his illness, and a
regency council
A regent (from Latin : ruling, governing) is a person appointed to govern a state ''pro tempore'' (Latin: 'for the time being') because the monarch is a minor, absent, incapacitated or unable to discharge the powers and duties of the monarchy, ...
was appointed until Hussein came of age. He was enthroned at the age of 17 on 2 May 1953. Hussein was married four separate times and fathered eleven children including
King Abdullah II of Jordan
Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein ( ar, عبدالله الثاني بن الحسين , translit=ʿAbd Allāh aṯ-ṯānī ibn al-Ḥusayn; born 30 January 1962) is King of Jordan, having ascended the throne on 7 February 1999. He is a member of t ...
.
Hussein, a
constitutional monarch
A constitutional monarchy, parliamentary monarchy, or democratic monarchy is a form of monarchy in which the monarch exercises their authority in accordance with a constitution and is not alone in decision making. Constitutional monarchies dif ...
, started his rule with what was termed a "liberal experiment", allowing in
1956 the formation of the
only democratically elected government in Jordan's history. A few months into the experiment, he
forced that government to resign, declaring
martial law
Martial law is the imposition of direct military control of normal civil functions or suspension of civil law by a government, especially in response to an emergency where civil forces are overwhelmed, or in an occupied territory.
Use
Marti ...
and banning political parties. Jordan fought three wars with Israel under Hussein, including the 1967
Six-Day War
The Six-Day War (, ; ar, النكسة, , or ) or June War, also known as the 1967 Arab–Israeli War or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab world, Arab states (primarily United Arab Republic, Egypt, S ...
, which ended in Jordan's loss of the
West Bank
The West Bank ( ar, الضفة الغربية, translit=aḍ-Ḍiffah al-Ġarbiyyah; he, הגדה המערבית, translit=HaGadah HaMaʽaravit, also referred to by some Israelis as ) is a landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...
. In 1970, Hussein expelled Palestinian fighters (
fedayeen) from Jordan after they had
threatened
Threatened species are any species (including animals, plants and fungi) which are vulnerable to endangerment in the near future. Species that are threatened are sometimes characterised by the population dynamics measure of ''critical depensa ...
the country's security in what became known as
Black September in Jordan
Black September ( ar, أيلول الأسود; ''Aylūl Al-Aswad''), also known as the Jordanian Civil War, was a conflict fought in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan between the Jordanian Armed Forces (JAF), under the leadership of King Husse ...
. The King
renounced Jordan's ties to the West Bank in 1988 after the
Palestine Liberation Organization
The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO; ar, منظمة التحرير الفلسطينية, ') is a Palestinian nationalism, Palestinian nationalist political and militant organization founded in 1964 with the initial purpose of establ ...
was recognized internationally as the sole representative of the Palestinians. He lifted martial law and reintroduced
elections
An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold Public administration, public office.
Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative ...
in
1989 when
riots over price hikes spread in southern Jordan. In 1994 he became the second Arab head of state to sign
a peace treaty with Israel.
At the time of Hussein's accession in 1953, Jordan was a young nation and
controlled the
West Bank
The West Bank ( ar, الضفة الغربية, translit=aḍ-Ḍiffah al-Ġarbiyyah; he, הגדה המערבית, translit=HaGadah HaMaʽaravit, also referred to by some Israelis as ) is a landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...
. The country had few natural resources, and a large Palestinian refugee population as a result of the
1948 Arab–Israeli War
The 1948 (or First) Arab–Israeli War was the second and final stage of the 1948 Palestine war. It formally began following the end of the British Mandate for Palestine at midnight on 14 May 1948; the Israeli Declaration of Independence had ...
. Hussein led his country through four turbulent decades of the
Arab–Israeli conflict
The Arab–Israeli conflict is an ongoing intercommunal phenomenon involving political tension, military conflicts, and other disputes between Arab countries and Israel, which escalated during the 20th century, but had mostly faded out by the ...
and the
Cold War
The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...
, successfully balancing pressures from
Arab nationalists
Arab nationalism ( ar, القومية العربية, al-Qawmīya al-ʿArabīya) is a nationalist ideology that asserts the Arabs are a nation and promotes the unity of Arab people, celebrating the glories of Arab civilization, the language and ...
,
Islamists
Islamism (also often called political Islam or Islamic fundamentalism) is a political ideology which posits that modern states and regions should be reconstituted in constitutional, economic and judicial terms, in accordance with what is c ...
, the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
,
Western countries
The Western world, also known as the West, primarily refers to the various nations and states in the regions of Europe, North America, and Oceania. , and Israel, transforming Jordan by the end of his 46-year reign into a stable modern state. After 1967 he engaged in efforts to solve the
Israeli–Palestinian conflict
The Israeli–Palestinian conflict is one of the world's most enduring conflicts, beginning in the mid-20th century. Various attempts have been made to resolve the conflict as part of the Israeli–Palestinian peace process, alongside other ef ...
. He acted as a conciliatory intermediate between various Middle Eastern rivals, and came to be seen as the region's peacemaker. He was revered for pardoning political dissidents and opponents, and giving them senior posts in the government. Hussein, who survived dozens of assassination attempts and plots to overthrow him, was the region's longest-reigning leader. He died at the age of 63 from cancer in 1999 and was succeeded by his eldest son, Abdullah II.
Early life
![Six years Hussien with Mother (cropped)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3a/Six_years_Hussien_with_Mother_%28cropped%29.jpg)
Hussein was born in
Amman
Amman (; ar, عَمَّان, ' ; Ammonite language, Ammonite: 𐤓𐤁𐤕 𐤏𐤌𐤍 ''Rabat ʻAmān'') is the capital and largest city of Jordan, and the country's economic, political, and cultural center. With a population of 4,061,150 a ...
on 14 November 1935 to Crown Prince
Talal and Princess
Zein al-Sharaf.
Hussein was the eldest among his siblings, three brothers and two sistersPrincess Asma,
Prince Muhammad,
Prince Hassan
Prince Hassan bin Talal ( ar, الحسن بن طلال, born 20 March 1947) is a member of the Jordanian royal family who was previously Crown Prince from 1965 to 1999, being removed just three weeks before Hussein of Jordan, King Hussein's death ...
, Prince Muhsin, and
Princess Basma.
During one cold Ammani winter, his baby sister Princess Asma died from
pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severity ...
, an indication of how poor his family was thenthey could not afford heating in their house.
Hussein was the
namesake
A namesake is a person, geographic location, or other entity bearing the name of another.
History
The word is first attested around 1635, and probably comes from the phrase "for one's name's sake",
which originates in English Bible translations ...
of his paternal great-grandfather,
Hussein bin Ali (
Sharif of Mecca
The Sharif of Mecca ( ar, شريف مكة, Sharīf Makkah) or Hejaz ( ar, شريف الحجاز, Sharīf al-Ḥijāz, links=no) was the title of the leader of the Sharifate of Mecca, traditional steward of the holy cities of Mecca and Medina and ...
), the leader of the 1916
Arab Revolt
The Arab Revolt ( ar, الثورة العربية, ) or the Great Arab Revolt ( ar, الثورة العربية الكبرى, ) was a military uprising of Arab forces against the Ottoman Empire in the Middle Eastern theatre of World War I. On ...
against the
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...
. Hussein claimed to be an
agnatic
Patrilineality, also known as the male line, the spear side or agnatic kinship, is a common kinship system in which an individual's family membership derives from and is recorded through their father's lineage. It generally involves the inheritanc ...
descendant of
Muhammad
Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 Common Era, CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Muhammad in Islam, Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet Divine inspiration, di ...
's daughter
Fatimah
Fāṭima bint Muḥammad ( ar, فَاطِمَة ٱبْنَت مُحَمَّد}, 605/15–632 CE), commonly known as Fāṭima al-Zahrāʾ (), was the daughter of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and his wife Khadija. Fatima's husband was Ali, th ...
and her husband
Ali
ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib ( ar, عَلِيّ بْن أَبِي طَالِب; 600 – 661 CE) was the last of four Rightly Guided Caliphs to rule Islam (r. 656 – 661) immediately after the death of Muhammad, and he was the first Shia Imam ...
, the
fourth caliph, since Hussein belonged to the
Hashemite
The Hashemites ( ar, الهاشميون, al-Hāshimīyūn), also House of Hashim, are the royal family of Jordan, which they have ruled since 1921, and were the royal family of the kingdoms of Hejaz (1916–1925), Syria (1920), and Iraq (1921 ...
family, which had ruled
Mecca
Mecca (; officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, commonly shortened to Makkah ()) is a city and administrative center of the Mecca Province of Saudi Arabia, and the Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red ...
for over 700 yearsuntil its
1925 conquest by the
House of Saud
The House of Saud ( ar, آل سُعُود, ʾĀl Suʿūd ) is the ruling royal family of Saudi Arabia. It is composed of the descendants of Muhammad bin Saud, founder of the Emirate of Diriyah, known as the First Saudi state (1727–1818), and ...
and has ruled
Jordan
Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...
since 1921.
The Hashemites, the oldest ruling dynasty in the
Muslim world
The terms Muslim world and Islamic world commonly refer to the Islamic community, which is also known as the Ummah. This consists of all those who adhere to the religious beliefs and laws of Islam or to societies in which Islam is practiced. I ...
, are the second-oldest-ruling dynasty in the world (after the
Imperial House of Japan
The , also referred to as the Imperial Family or the House of Yamato, comprises those members of the extended family of the reigning Emperor of Japan who undertake official and public duties. Under the present Constitution of Japan, the Emperor i ...
). Hussein's maternal grandmother, Widjan Hanim, was the daughter of Shakir Pasha who was the Ottoman governor of Cyprus.
![King Abdullah on Jordan Independence day, 25 May 1946](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/12/King_Abdullah_on_Jordan_Independence_day%2C_25_May_1946.jpg)
The young prince started his elementary education in Amman. He was then educated at
Victoria College in
Alexandria
Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandria ...
, Egypt.
He proceeded to
Harrow School
(The Faithful Dispensation of the Gifts of God)
, established = (Royal Charter)
, closed =
, type = Public schoolIndependent schoolBoarding school
, religion = Church of E ...
in England, where he befriended his second cousin
Faisal II of Iraq
Faisal II ( ar, الملك فيصل الثاني ''el-Melik Faysal es-Sânî'') (2 May 1935 – 14 July 1958) was the last King of Iraq. He reigned from 4 April 1939 until July 1958, when he was killed during the 14 July Revolution. This regici ...
, who was also studying there.
Faisal was then King of
Hashemite Iraq, but was under regency since he was the same age as Hussein.
Hussein's grandfather,
King Abdullah I
AbdullahI bin Al-Hussein ( ar, عبد الله الأول بن الحسين, translit=Abd Allāh al-Awwal bin al-Husayn, 2 February 1882 – 20 July 1951) was the ruler of Jordan from 11 April 1921 until his assassination in 1951. He was the Emir ...
, the founder of modern Jordan, did not see in his two sons Talal and
Nayef potential for kingship, and therefore he focused his efforts on the upbringing of his grandson Hussein. A special relationship grew between the two. Abdullah assigned Hussein a private tutor for extra Arabic lessons, and Hussein acted as interpreter for his grandfather during his meetings with foreign leaders, as Abdullah understood English but could not speak it. On 20 July 1951, 15-year-old Prince Hussein travelled to
Jerusalem
Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...
to perform
Friday prayers
In Islam, Friday prayer or Congregational prayer ( ar, صَلَاة ٱلْجُمُعَة, ') is a prayer ('' ṣalāt'') that Muslims hold every Friday, after noon instead of the Zuhr prayer. Muslims ordinarily pray five times each day according ...
at the
Masjid Al-Aqsa with his grandfather.
A Palestinian assassin opened fire on Abdullah and his grandson, amid rumours that the King had been planning to sign a peace treaty with the newly established state of Israel.
Abdullah died, but Hussein survived the assassination attempt and, according to witnesses, pursued the assassin.
Hussein was also shot, but the bullet was deflected by a medal on his uniform that his grandfather had given him.
Reign
Accession
Abdullah's eldest son, Talal, was proclaimed
King of Jordan
The king of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan is Jordan's head of state and monarch. He serves as the head of the Jordanian monarchy—the Hashemite dynasty. The king is addressed as His Majesty ().
Jordan is a constitutional monarchy. However, ...
.
Talal appointed his son Hussein as crown prince on 9 September 1951.
After a reign lasting less than thirteen months, the
Parliament
In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
forced King Talal to
abdicate
Abdication is the act of formally relinquishing monarchical authority. Abdications have played various roles in the succession procedures of monarchies. While some cultures have viewed abdication as an extreme abandonment of duty, in other societ ...
due to his mental statedoctors had diagnosed
schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by continuous or relapsing episodes of psychosis. Major symptoms include hallucinations (typically hearing voices), delusions, and disorganized thinking. Other symptoms include social withdra ...
.
In his brief reign, Talal had introduced a modern, somewhat liberal
constitution
A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of Legal entity, entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed.
When ...
in 1952 that is still in use today.
Hussein was proclaimed king on 11 August 1952, succeeding to the throne three months before his 17th birthday.
A telegram from Jordan was brought in to Hussein while he was staying with his mother abroad in
Lausanne
, neighboring_municipalities= Bottens, Bretigny-sur-Morrens, Chavannes-près-Renens, Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Crissier, Cugy, Écublens, Épalinges, Évian-les-Bains (FR-74), Froideville, Jouxtens-Mézery, Le Mont-sur-Lausanne, Lugrin (FR-74), ...
, Switzerland, addressed to 'His Majesty King Hussein'.
"I did not need to open it to know that my days as a schoolboy were over," Hussein later wrote in his memoirs.
He returned home to cheering crowds.
A three-man regency council made up of the prime minister and heads of the
Senate
A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...
and the
House of Representatives
House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...
was appointed until he became 18 (by the
Muslim calendar
The Hijri calendar ( ar, ٱلتَّقْوِيم ٱلْهِجْرِيّ, translit=al-taqwīm al-hijrī), also known in English as the Muslim calendar and Islamic calendar, is a lunar calendar consisting of 12 lunar months in a year of 354 or ...
). Meanwhile, Hussein pursued further study at the
Royal Military Academy Sandhurst.
He was enthroned on 2 May 1953, the same day that his cousin
Faisal II
Faisal II ( ar, الملك فيصل الثاني ''el-Melik Faysal es-Sânî'') (2 May 1935 – 14 July 1958) was the last King of Iraq. He reigned from 4 April 1939 until July 1958, when he was killed during the 14 July Revolution. This regici ...
assumed his constitutional powers as king of Iraq.
First years
![King Hussein in uniform in 1953](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/37/King_Hussein_in_uniform_in_1953.jpg)
The teenaged king inherited the throne not only of Jordan, but also of the
West Bank
The West Bank ( ar, الضفة الغربية, translit=aḍ-Ḍiffah al-Ġarbiyyah; he, הגדה המערבית, translit=HaGadah HaMaʽaravit, also referred to by some Israelis as ) is a landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...
, captured by Jordan during the
1948 Arab–Israeli War
The 1948 (or First) Arab–Israeli War was the second and final stage of the 1948 Palestine war. It formally began following the end of the British Mandate for Palestine at midnight on 14 May 1948; the Israeli Declaration of Independence had ...
and
annexed in 1950.
The country was poor in natural resources, and had a large Palestinian refugee population resulting from the warthe annexation of the West Bank had made Palestinians two-thirds of the population, outnumbering Jordanians.
Upon assuming the throne, he appointed
Fawzi Mulki as prime minister.
Mulki's liberal policies, including freedom of the press, led to unrest as opposition groups started a propaganda campaign against the monarchy.
Palestinian
Palestinians ( ar, الفلسطينيون, ; he, פָלַסְטִינִים, ) or Palestinian people ( ar, الشعب الفلسطيني, label=none, ), also referred to as Palestinian Arabs ( ar, الفلسطينيين العرب, label=non ...
fighters (
fedayeen, meaning self-sacrificers) used Jordanian-controlled territory to launch attacks against Israel, sometimes provoking heavy retaliation.
One
reprisal operation by Israel became known as the
Qibya massacre
The Qibya massacre occurred during "Operation Shoshana", a reprisal operation that occurred in October 1953 when Israeli troops under Ariel Sharon attacked the village of Qibya in the West Bank. At least sixty-nine Palestinian villagers were ...
; it resulted in the death of 66 civilians in the West Bank village of
Qibya
Qibya ( ar, قبية) is a Palestinian village in the West Bank, located northwest of Ramallah and exactly north of the large Israeli city of Modi'in. It is part of the Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate, and according to the Palestinian Central Bu ...
.
The incident led to protests, and in 1954 Hussein dismissed Mulki amid the unrest and appointed staunch royalist
Tawfik Abu Al-Huda
Tawfik Abu al-Huda ( ar, توفيق ابو الهدى) (also known as Tawfik Pasha Abul-Huda) (1894 – 1 July 1956) served several terms as the 7th Prime Minister of Jordan. First he served as Prime minister of Transjordan from September 28, 19 ...
.
The country
held parliamentary elections in October 1954, while the country's parties were not yet fully organized.
Abu Al-Huda lasted only a year, and the government underwent reshuffling three times within the following year.
The 1955
Baghdad Pact
The Middle East Treaty Organization (METO), also known as the Baghdad Pact and subsequently known as the Central Treaty Organization (CENTO), was a military alliance of the Cold War. It was formed in 24 February 1955 by Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Tur ...
was a Western attempt to form a Middle Eastern alliance to counter
Soviet
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...
influence and
Gamal Abdel Nasser
Gamal Abdel Nasser Hussein, . (15 January 1918 – 28 September 1970) was an Egyptian politician who served as the second president of Egypt from 1954 until his death in 1970. Nasser led the Egyptian revolution of 1952 and introduced far-re ...
's Egypt.
Jordan then found itself in the middle of
Cold War
The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...
tensions.
Britain, Turkey, and Iraq were members of the pact, and Jordan was pressured by Britain to join.
Nasserism
Nasserism ( ) is an Arab nationalist and Arab socialist political ideology based on the thinking of Gamal Abdel Nasser, one of the two principal leaders of the Egyptian Revolution of 1952, and Egypt's second President. Spanning the domestic a ...
(a
socialist
Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...
Pan-Arabist
Pan-Arabism ( ar, الوحدة العربية or ) is an ideology that espouses the unification of the countries of North Africa and Western Asia from the Atlantic Ocean to the Arabian Sea, which is referred to as the Arab world. It is closely c ...
ideology) swept the
Arab World
The Arab world ( ar, اَلْعَالَمُ الْعَرَبِيُّ '), formally the Arab homeland ( '), also known as the Arab nation ( '), the Arabsphere, or the Arab states, refers to a vast group of countries, mainly located in Western A ...
in the 1950s, and the proposal to join the pact triggered large riots in the country.
Curfews imposed by the
Arab Legion
The Arab Legion () was the police force, then regular army of the Emirate of Transjordan, a British protectorate, in the early part of the 20th century, and then of independent Jordan, with a final Arabization of its command taking place in 195 ...
did little to alleviate the situation and tensions persisted throughout 1955.
The local unrest, periodically fueled by propaganda transmitted from Egyptian radios, was only calmed after the King appointed a new prime minister who promised not to enter the Baghdad Pact.
Saudi Arabia found common ground with Egypt in their suspicions of the Hashemites, both in Jordan and in Iraq.
The Saudis massed troops near
Aqaba
Aqaba (, also ; ar, العقبة, al-ʿAqaba, al-ʿAgaba, ) is the only coastal city in Jordan and the largest and most populous city on the Gulf of Aqaba. Situated in southernmost Jordan, Aqaba is the administrative centre of the Aqaba Govern ...
on Jordan's southern borders in January 1956, and only withdrew after the British threatened to intervene on Jordan's behalf.
Hussein realized that the Arab nationalist trend had dominated Arab politics, and decided to start downgrading Jordan's relationship with the British.
On 1 March 1956, Hussein asserted Jordanian independence by
Arabizing the army's command: he dismissed
Glubb Pasha
Lieutenant-General Sir John Bagot Glubb, KCB, CMG, DSO, OBE, MC, KStJ, KPM (16 April 1897 – 17 March 1986), known as Glubb Pasha, was a British soldier, scholar, and author, who led and trained Transjordan's Arab Legion between 1939 a ...
as the commander of the Arab Legion and replaced all the senior British officers with Jordanians, thereby renaming it into the "
Jordan Armed Forces-Arab Army."
He annulled the Anglo-Jordanian treaty and replaced British subsidies with Arab aid.
Hussein's bold decisions were met with admiration at home and relations with Arab states improved.
"A liberal experiment"
Egyptian President Nasser received an outpouring of support from the Arab public after the
Egyptian–Czechoslovak arms deal The Egyptian''-''Czechoslovak arms deal was an agreement between the USSR and Egypt led by Gamal Abdel Nasser, announced in September 1955, to supply Egypt with more than $83 million worth of modern Soviet weaponry, through Czechoslovakia. The dea ...
was signed in September 1955, and his popularity in Jordan skyrocketed following the nationalization of the
Suez Canal
The Suez Canal ( arz, قَنَاةُ ٱلسُّوَيْسِ, ') is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the Isthmus of Suez and dividing Africa and Asia. The long canal is a popular ...
in July 1956; his actions were seen as a powerful stance against Western
imperialism
Imperialism is the state policy, practice, or advocacy of extending power and dominion, especially by direct territorial acquisition or by gaining political and economic control of other areas, often through employing hard power (economic and ...
. Hussein was also supportive of the moves. The coinciding events in Egypt had Jordanian leftist opposition parties leaning greatly towards Nasser.
![King Hussein and Abu Nuwar, 1956](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/08/King_Hussein_and_Abu_Nuwar%2C_1956.jpg)
The parliament that had been elected in 1954 was dissolved, and Hussein promised fair elections. The parliamentary election held on
21 October 1956 saw the
National Socialist Party emerge as the largest party, winning 12 seats out of 40 in the House of Representatives. Hussein subsequently asked
Suleiman Nabulsi
Suleiman Nabulsi ( ar, سليمان النابلسي; 1908 – 14 October 1976) was a leftist Jordanian political figure who served as the 12th List of Prime Ministers of Jordan, Prime Minister of Jordan in 1956–57.
In October 1956 during the ...
, leader of the Party, to form a government, the only
democratically elected government
An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold Public administration, public office.
Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative ...
in Jordan's history. Hussein called this a "liberal experiment," to see how Jordanians would "react to responsibility." On 29 October 1956, the
Suez Crisis
The Suez Crisis, or the Second Arab–Israeli war, also called the Tripartite Aggression ( ar, العدوان الثلاثي, Al-ʿUdwān aṯ-Ṯulāṯiyy) in the Arab world and the Sinai War in Israel,Also known as the Suez War or 1956 Wa ...
erupted in Egypt, as Britain, France, and Israel launched a military offensive to seize control of the canal. Hussein was furious but Nabulsi discouraged him from intervening. Nabulsi's policies frequently clashed with that of King Hussein's, including on how to deal with the
Eisenhower Doctrine
The Eisenhower Doctrine was a policy enunciated by Dwight D. Eisenhower on January 5, 1957, within a "Special Message to the Congress on the Situation in the Middle East". Under the Eisenhower Doctrine, a Middle Eastern country could request Ame ...
. The King had requested Nabulsi, as prime minister, to crack down on the
Communist Party
A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. A ...
and the media it controlled. Nabulsi wanted to move Jordan closer to Nasser's regime, but Hussein wanted it to stay in the Western camp.
Disagreements between the monarchy and the leftist government culminated in March 1957 when Nabulsi provided Hussein with a list of senior officers in the military he wanted to dismiss; Hussein initially heeded the recommendations. However, Nabulsi then presented an expanded list, which Hussein refused to act upon. Nabulsi's government was forced to resign on 10 April.
![King Hussein of Jordan among his troops 1 March 1957](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/25/King_Hussein_of_Jordan_among_his_troops_1_March_1957.png)
On 13 April, rioting broke in the
Zarqa
Zarqa ( ar, الزرقاء) is the capital of Zarqa Governorate in Jordan. Its name means "the blue (city)". It had a population of 635,160 inhabitants in 2015, and is the most populous city in Jordan after Amman.
Geography
Zarqa is located in t ...
army barracks and the 21-year-old Hussein went to end the violence between royalist and Arab nationalist army units after the latter group spread rumors that the King had been assassinated. A 3,000-man Syrian force started moving south towards the Jordanian border in support of what they
perceived as a coup attempt, but turned around after the army units showed their loyalty to the King. Two principal accounts emerged regarding the events at Zarqa, with the royalist version holding that the incident was an abortive coup by army chief of staff
Ali Abu Nuwar
Ali Abu Nuwar (surname also spelled ''Abu Nuwwar'', ''Abu Nawar'' or ''Abu Nowar''; 1925 – 15 August 1991) was a Jordanian Armed Forces, Jordanian army officer, serving as chief of staff in May 1956 – April 1957. He participated in the 1948 ...
against King Hussein, and the dissident version asserting that it was a staged, American-backed counter-coup by Hussein against the pan-Arabist movement in Jordan. In either case, Abu Nuwar and other senior Arabist officers resigned and were allowed to leave Jordan for Syria, where they incited opposition to the Jordanian monarchy. Hussein reacted by imposing
martial law
Martial law is the imposition of direct military control of normal civil functions or suspension of civil law by a government, especially in response to an emergency where civil forces are overwhelmed, or in an occupied territory.
Use
Marti ...
. Although he eventually relaxed some of these measures, namely military curfews and severe press censorship, Hussein's moves significantly curtailed the constitutional democracy that existed in Jordan in the mid-1950s. The alleged conspirators were sentenced to 15 years
in absentia
is Latin for absence. , a legal term, is Latin for "in the absence" or "while absent".
may also refer to:
* Award in absentia
* Declared death in absentia, or simply, death in absentia, legally declared death without a body
* Election in ab ...
, but later on were pardoned by Hussein in 1964 as part of his reconciliation efforts with his exiled opposition, and were entrusted with senior positions in the government.
Arab Federation between Iraq and Jordan
The 1950s became known as the
Arab Cold War
The Arab Cold War ( ar, الحرب العربية الباردة ''al-Harb al-`Arabiyyah al-bāridah'') was a period of political rivalry in the Arab world from the early 1950s to the late 1970s as part of the broader Cold War. The generally a ...
, due to the conflict between states led by Nasserist Egypt and traditionalist kingdoms led by Saudi Arabia. Egypt and Syria formed the
United Arab Republic
The United Arab Republic (UAR; ar, الجمهورية العربية المتحدة, al-Jumhūrīyah al-'Arabīyah al-Muttaḥidah) was a sovereign state in the Middle East from 1958 until 1971. It was initially a political union between Eg ...
(UAR) on 1 February 1958, with the Republic's presidency occupied by Nasser. As a counterweight, Hussein and his cousin,
King Faisal II
Faisal II ( ar, الملك فيصل الثاني ''el-Melik Faysal es-Sânî'') (2 May 1935 – 14 July 1958) was the last King of Iraq. He reigned from 4 April 1939 until July 1958, when he was killed during the 14 July Revolution. This regici ...
of
Hashemite Iraq, established the
Arab Federation on 14 February 1958 in an Amman ceremony. The two rival entities launched propaganda wars against each other through their radio broadcasts. Jordanian and Syrian forces clashed in March along the border. UAR-inspired conspiracies started to emerge against the Hashemite federation. An officer in Jordan was arrested for plotting to assassinate Hussein. It also emerged in Jordan that the UAR was planning to overthrow both Hashemite monarchies in July 1958. Jordan reacted by arresting 40 suspected army officers, and Hussein called in Iraqi army chief of staff Rafiq Aref to brief him on the exposed plot. Aref replied, "You look after yourselves. Iraq is a very stable country, unlike Jordan. If there are any worries it is Jordan that should be worried." Although Faisal and Hussein enjoyed a very close relationship, Faisal's Iraqi entourage looked down on Jordan; Hussein attributed this attitude to Iraqi crown prince
'Abd al-Ilah's influence.
![King Faisal and King Hussein 2 1957](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/64/King_Faisal_and_King_Hussein_2_1957.png)
The Lebanese, pro-Western government of
Camille Chamoun
Camille Nimr Chamoun OM, ONC ( ar, كميل نمر شمعون, ''Kamīl Sham'ūn''; 3 April 1900 – 7 August 1987) was a Lebanese politician who served as President of Lebanon from 1952 to 1958. He was one of the country's main Christi ...
was also threatened to be toppled by growing UAR-supported domestic opposition groups. The Iraqis sent a brigade to Jordan on 13 July at Hussein's request. The Iraqi brigade's departure to Jordan gave the conspirators in Iraq, led by Brigadier
Abd al-Karim Qasim
Abd al-Karim Qasim Muhammad Bakr al-Fadhli al-Zubaidi ( ar, عبد الكريم قاسم ' ) (21 November 1914 – 9 February 1963) was an Iraqi Army brigadier and nationalist who came to power when the Iraqi monarchy was overthrown d ...
, the opportunity to strike. On
14 July
Events Pre-1600
* 982 – King Otto II and his Frankish army are defeated by the Muslim army of al-Qasim at Cape Colonna, Southern Italy.
*1223 – Louis VIII becomes King of France upon the death of his father, Philip II.
* 1420 ...
, an Iraqi unit stormed the royal palace in Iraq, executed all members of the Iraqi royal family, and mutilated the bodies of the crown prince and the Iraqi Prime Minister of the Arab Federation,
Nuri Al-Said
Nuri Pasha al-Said CH (December 1888 – 15 July 1958) ( ar, نوري السعيد) was an Iraqi politician during the British mandate in Iraq and the Hashemite Kingdom of Iraq. He held various key cabinet positions and served eight terms as ...
. Devastated, Hussein ordered a Jordanian expedition led by
Sharif
Sharīf ( ar, شريف, 'noble', 'highborn'), also spelled shareef or sherif, feminine sharīfa (), plural ashrāf (), shurafāʾ (), or (in the Maghreb) shurfāʾ, is a title used to designate a person descended, or claiming to be descended, fr ...
Nasser to reclaim the Iraqi throne, but it was recalled after it was inside Iraq. Hussein, worried about a similar coup in Jordan, tightened
martial law
Martial law is the imposition of direct military control of normal civil functions or suspension of civil law by a government, especially in response to an emergency where civil forces are overwhelmed, or in an occupied territory.
Use
Marti ...
. American troops landed in both Lebanon and Jordan as a show of support for pro-Western regimes in the region against the Nasserist tide. By October, the situation had calmed, and Western troops were recalled.
Hussein went on a vacation to Switzerland on 10 November. As he was flying his own plane over Syria, it was intercepted by two Syrian jets that attempted to attack. Hussein outmaneuvered the Syrians and survived the assassination attempt, landing safely in Amman, where he received a hero's welcomehis popularity in Jordan skyrocketed overnight.
Golda Meir
Golda Meir, ; ar, جولدا مائير, Jūldā Māʾīr., group=nb (born Golda Mabovitch; 3 May 1898 – 8 December 1978) was an Israeli politician, teacher, and '' kibbutznikit'' who served as the fourth prime minister of Israel from 1969 to ...
, an Israeli politician who would later become prime minister, was reported in 1958 as saying: "We all pray three times a day for King Hussein's safety and success." The Israelis preferred that Hussein remained in power, rather than a Nasserist regime.
In 1959, Hussein embarked on a tour to different countries to consolidate bilateral ties. His visit to the United States gained him many friends in
Congress
A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...
after he spoke openly against Soviet influence in the Middle East, returning with a $50million aid package. Sadiq Al-Shar'a, an army general who accompanied Hussein to the United States, was found to have been plotting a coup against the monarchy. News of the arrest of the conspiring officers in Jordan coincided with Hussein's visit to the US. Hussein was tipped off to Al-Shar'a's involvement, but did not reveal it until they both landed back in Jordan. Al-Shar'a was tried and received the death penalty; Hussein reduced his sentence to life imprisonment. Four years later, Al-Shar'a was pardoned and appointed director of Jordan's passport office.
Assassination attempts
Hazza' Majali was appointed by Hussein to form a government; it consisted of loyalists who had persuaded Hussein to launch an offensive against the Iraqi government to restore the Hashemite monarchy. The expedition was cancelled amid British opposition and the weakened state of the
Royal Jordanian Air Force. UAR agents assassinated Prime Minister Majali with a bomb planted in his office. Twenty minutes later, another explosion went off; it was intended for Hussein as it was expected he would run to the scene, which he didhe was a few minutes late. Hussein, persuaded by
Habis Majali
Habis Majali ( ar, حابس المجالي; 1914 – April 22, 2001) was a Jordanian soldier. Majali served as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the Jordanian Armed Forces from 1958 to 1975, as Minister of Defense from 1967 to 1968, ...
, Hazza's cousin and the army chief of staff, prepared for a retaliation against Syria, whose intelligence service was responsible for the assassination. He prepared three brigades in the north, but the operation was called off after combined pressures from the Americans and the British. Egyptian radios denounced Hussein as the "Judas of the Arabs."
![Prime Ministry of Jordan terrorist attack, 29 August 1960](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/aa/Prime_Ministry_of_Jordan_terrorist_attack%2C_29_August_1960.png)
Hussein would be subjected to several more assassination attempts. One involved replacing his nose drops with strong acid. Another plot was uncovered after a large number of cats were found dead in the royal palace; it emerged that the cook had been trying poisons to use against the king. He was later pardoned and released after Hussein received a plea from the cook's daughter. Assassination attempts against the king subsided after
a successful coup toppled the Syrian regime on 28 September 1961 and the UAR collapsed. With a calmed situation in Jordan, the King issued his slogan "Let us build this country to serve this nation." But critics considered the slogan mere lip service, saying Hussein showed little interest in the economic situation of the country, unlike the military and foreign relations aspects.
In January 1962
Wasfi Tal
Wasfi Tal ( ar, وصفي التل; also known as Wasfi Tell; 19 January 1919 – 28 November 1971) was a Jordanian politician, statesman and general. He served as the 15th Prime Minister of Jordan for three separate terms, 1962–63, 1965–67 a ...
was appointed prime minister. The young politician who worked to bring sweeping reforms resigned after Hussein sought to solidify his position following the rise of the Nasser-supporting
Ba'ath party to the governments of Iraq and Syria in
two 1963 coups. The first direct contacts between Jordan and Israel started in early 1960s; Hussein had a Jewish doctor named Emmanuel Herbert who acted as intermediary between the two nations during Hussein's visits to London. In the talks, Hussein highlighted his commitment to a peaceful resolution to the
Israeli–Palestinian conflict
The Israeli–Palestinian conflict is one of the world's most enduring conflicts, beginning in the mid-20th century. Various attempts have been made to resolve the conflict as part of the Israeli–Palestinian peace process, alongside other ef ...
. His secret rapprochement with Israel was followed by a public rapprochement with Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser in 1964, which bolstered Hussein's popularity both in Jordan and in the Arab world. Hussein received a warm welcome after visiting West Bank cities afterwards. The rapprochement with Nasser happened during the
1964 Arab League summit in Cairo, where the
Palestine Liberation Army
The Palestine Liberation Army (PLA, ar, جيش التحرير الفلسطيني, ''Jaysh at-Tahrir al-Filastini'') is ostensibly the military wing of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), set up at the 1964 Arab League summit held in A ...
(PLA) and the
Palestine Liberation Organization
The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO; ar, منظمة التحرير الفلسطينية, ') is a Palestinian nationalism, Palestinian nationalist political and militant organization founded in 1964 with the initial purpose of establ ...
(PLO) were established, and where Jordan agreed to join the
United Arab Command
The United Arab Command (UAC) (also Unified Arab Command or Joint Arab Command) was a unified Military of the Arab League, Arab military Command (military formation), command established by unanimous resolution of the thirteen member states of th ...
. During the summit Nasser also attempted to convince Hussein to purchase Soviet weapons, but the Americans provided Hussein with tanks and jets instead, with the understanding that they would not be used in the West Bank at Israel's request. The PLO identified itself as a representative of the Palestinian people, which clashed with Jordan's sovereignty claim over the West Bank. The PLO started to demand that the Jordanian government legalize their activities, including the setting up of Palestinian armed units to fight Israel; the requests were denied.
Samu Incident
![Nasser and Hussein at 1964 Arab Summit](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dd/Nasser_and_Hussein_at_1964_Arab_Summit.jpg)
Hussein later stated that during one of his meetings with Israeli representatives: "I told them I could not absorb a serious retaliatory raid, and they accepted the logic of this and promised there would never be one." The Palestinian nationalist organization
Fatah
Fatah ( ar, فتح '), formerly the Palestinian National Liberation Movement, is a Palestinian nationalist social democratic political party and the largest faction of the confederated multi-party Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and ...
started organizing cross-border attacks against Israel in January 1965, often drawing
Israeli reprisals on Jordan.
One such reprisal was the
Samu Incident, an attack launched by Israel on 13 November 1966 on the Jordanian-controlled West Bank town of
As-Samu
As Samu' or es-Samu' ( ar, السموع) () is a town in the Hebron Governorate of the West Bank, Palestine, 12 kilometers south of the city of Hebron and 60 kilometers southwest of Jerusalem.
Geography
The area is a hilly, rocky area cut by ...
after three Israeli soldiers were killed by a Fatah landmine. The assault inflicted heavy Arab casualties. Israeli writer
Avi Shlaim
Avraham "Avi" Shlaim (born 31 October 1945) is an Israeli-British historian, Emeritus Professor of International Relations at the University of Oxford and fellow of the British Academy. He is one of Israel's New Historians, a group of Israeli ...
argues that Israel's disproportionate retaliation exacted revenge on the wrong party, as Israeli leaders knew from their coordination with Hussein that he was doing everything he could to prevent such attacks. The incident drew fierce local criticism of Hussein amid feelings he had been betrayed by the Israelis; Hussein also suspected that Israel had changed its attitude towards Jordan and had intended to escalate matters in order to capture the West Bank.
Yitzhak Rabin
Yitzhak Rabin (; he, יִצְחָק רַבִּין, ; 1 March 1922 – 4 November 1995) was an Israeli politician, statesman and general. He was the fifth Prime Minister of Israel, serving two terms in office, 1974–77, and from 1992 until h ...
, the then
Israel Defense Forces
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; he, צְבָא הַהֲגָנָה לְיִשְׂרָאֵל , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the Israel, State of Israel. It consists of three servic ...
chief of staff, later admitted the disproportionate reaction by Israel, and that the operation would have been better directed at Syria, which was supporting such attacks: "We had neither political nor military reasons to arrive at a confrontation with Jordan or to humiliate Hussein."
The events at Samu triggered large-scale anti-Hashemite protests in the West Bank for what they perceived as Hussein's incompetency for defending them against Israel: rioters attacked government offices, chanted pro-Nasser slogans, and called on Hussein to have the same fate as
Nuri As-Said
Nuri Pasha al-Said CH (December 1888 – 15 July 1958) ( ar, نوري السعيد) was an Iraqi politician during the British mandate in Iraq and the Hashemite Kingdom of Iraq. He held various key cabinet positions and served eight terms as ...
the Iraqi prime minister who had been killed and mutilated in 1958 along with the Iraqi royal family. Jordanians believed that after this incident, Israel would march on the West Bank whether or not Jordan joined the war. Perception of King Hussein's efforts to come to peaceful terms with Israel led to great dissatisfaction among some Arab leaders.
President Nasser of Egypt denounced Hussein as an "imperialist lackey."
[BBC on this Day]
Egypt and Jordan unite against Israel
Retrieved 8 October 2005. In a meeting with American officials, Hussein, sometimes with tears in his eyes, said: "The growing split between the East Bank and the West Bank has ruined my dreams," and, "There is near despair in the army and the army no longer has confidence in me." Hussein travelled to Cairo on 30 May 1967 and hastily signed an Egyptian-Jordanian mutual defense treaty, returning home to cheering crowds. Shlaim argues that Hussein had possessed options, but had made two mistakes: the first was in putting the Jordanian army under Egyptian command; the second was in allowing the entry of Iraqi troops into Jordan, which raised Israeli suspicions against Jordan. Egyptian general
Abdul Munim Riad arrived in Jordan to command its army pursuant to the pact signed with Egypt.
Six-Day War
![King Hussein flying over Temple Mount when it was under Jordanian control](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1d/King_Hussein_flying_over_Temple_Mount_when_it_was_under_Jordanian_control.jpg)
On 5 June 1967 the
Six-Day War
The Six-Day War (, ; ar, النكسة, , or ) or June War, also known as the 1967 Arab–Israeli War or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab world, Arab states (primarily United Arab Republic, Egypt, S ...
began after an Israeli strike wiped out
Egypt's Air Force. The Egyptian army commander in Cairo transmitted to General Riad that the Israeli strike had failed, and that
Israel's Air Force was almost wiped out. Based on the misleading information from Cairo, Riad ordered the Jordanian army to take offensive positions and attack Israeli targets around
Jerusalem
Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...
. Jordanian
Hawker Hunters
The Hawker Hunter is a transonic British jet-powered fighter aircraft that was developed by Hawker Aircraft for the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It was designed to take advantage of the newly developed Rolls-Roy ...
made sorties but were destroyed by Israel when they went to refuel; Syria's and Iraq's air forces followed. Israel's air superiority on the first day of war proved decisive. Two Israeli jets attempted to assassinate Hussein; one was shot down by anti-aircraft artillery, and the other shot directly at Hussein's office in the royal palace. Hussein was not there, the
CIA
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...
station chief in Amman
Jack O'Connell Jack O'Connell may refer to:
* Jack O'Connell (actor) (born 1990), English actor
* Jack O'Connell (Australian politician) (1903–1972), member of the Victorian Legislative Council
* Jack O'Connell (diplomat) (1921–2010), American diplomat and C ...
relayed a message threatening the Israelis, and the attempts stopped. The Jordanians had prepared a war strategy, but the Egyptian commander insisted to build his strategy based on the misleading information from Egypt.
By 7 June fighting led the Jordanians to withdraw from the West Bank, and Jerusalem's
Old City and the
Dome of the Rock were abandoned after desperate fighting. Israel blew up the bridges between the two banks to consolidate its control. Jordan suffered a severe setback with the loss of the West Bank, which contributed 40% to Jordan's GDP in the tourism, industrial, and agricultural sectors. Around 200,000 Palestinian refugees fled to Jordan, destabilizing Jordan's demographics. The loss of Jerusalem was critical to Jordan, and specifically for Hussein who held the
Hashemite custodianship of Muslim and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem. Al-Aqsa mosque is the third holiest site in Islam, believed to be where
Muhammad
Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 Common Era, CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Muhammad in Islam, Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet Divine inspiration, di ...
ascended to heaven. By 11 June Israel had decisively won the war by capturing the West Bank from Jordan,
Gaza and the
Sinai
Sinai commonly refers to:
* Sinai Peninsula, Egypt
* Mount Sinai, a mountain in the Sinai Peninsula, Egypt
* Biblical Mount Sinai, the site in the Bible where Moses received the Law of God
Sinai may also refer to:
* Sinai, South Dakota, a place ...
from Egypt, and the
Golan Heights
The Golan Heights ( ar, هَضْبَةُ الْجَوْلَانِ, Haḍbatu l-Jawlān or ; he, רמת הגולן, ), or simply the Golan, is a region in the Levant spanning about . The region defined as the Golan Heights differs between di ...
from Syria. Nasser and Hussein, recognizing their defeat, sought to work together towards a more moderate stance.
On 22 November 1967 the
United Nations Security Council
The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is one of the Organs of the United Nations, six principal organs of the United Nations (UN) and is charged with ensuring international security, international peace and security, recommending the admi ...
unanimously approved
resolution 242
United Nations Security Council Resolution 242 (S/RES/242) was adopted unanimously by the UN Security Council on November 22, 1967, in the aftermath of the Six-Day War. It was adopted under Chapter VI of the UN Charter. The resolution was spons ...
, which became one of Jordan's foreign policy cornerstones. It denounced acquisition of territory by force and called on Israel to withdraw from territories occupied in the 1967 war. Israel rejected the resolution. Hussein restarted talks with Israeli representatives throughout 1968 and 1969, but the talks went nowhereShlaim claims the Israelis stalled and that Hussein refused to cede any West Bank territory.
Black September
![Karama aftermath 1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/06/Karama_aftermath_1.jpg)
After Jordan lost control of the West Bank in 1967,
Palestinian
Palestinians ( ar, الفلسطينيون, ; he, פָלַסְטִינִים, ) or Palestinian people ( ar, الشعب الفلسطيني, label=none, ), also referred to as Palestinian Arabs ( ar, الفلسطينيين العرب, label=non ...
fighters known as "
fedayeen", meaning self-sacrificers, moved their bases to Jordan and stepped up their attacks on Israel and Israeli-occupied territories, Israeli occupied territories. One Israeli retaliation on a PLO camp based in Karameh, a Jordanian town along the border with the West Bank, developed into a full-scale battle. It is believed that Israel had wanted to punish Jordan for its perceived support for the PLO. After failing to capture Yasser Arafat, the PLO leader, Israeli forces withdrew or were repulsed, but not before destroying the Karameh camp and sustaining relatively high casualties. The perceived joint Jordanian-Palestinian victory in the 1968 Battle of Karameh led to an upsurge of support in the Arab World for Palestinian fighters in Jordan. The PLO in Jordan grew in strength, and by the beginning of 1970 the fedayeen groups started to openly call for the overthrow of the
Hashemite
The Hashemites ( ar, الهاشميون, al-Hāshimīyūn), also House of Hashim, are the royal family of Jordan, which they have ruled since 1921, and were the royal family of the kingdoms of Hejaz (1916–1925), Syria (1920), and Iraq (1921 ...
monarchy. Acting as a state within a state, the fedayeen disregarded local laws and regulations, and even attempted to assassinate King Hussein twice, leading to violent confrontations between them and the Jordanian army. Hussein wanted to oust the fedayeen from the country, but hesitated to strike because he did not want his enemies to use it against him by equating Palestinian fighters with civilians. PLO actions in Jordan culminated in the Dawson's Field hijackings incident on 10 September 1970, in which the fedayeen hijacked three civilian aircraft and forced their landing in Zarqa, taking foreign nationals as hostages, and later bombing the planes in front of the international press. Hussein saw this as the last straw, and ordered the army to move.
On 17 September the Jordanian army surrounded cities that had a PLO presence, including Amman and Irbid, and began shelling the fedayeen, who had established themselves in Palestinian refugee camps. The next day, a force from Syria with PLO markings started advancing towards Irbid, which the fedayeen declared a "liberated" city. On 22 September, the Syrians withdrew after the Jordanian army launched an air-ground offensive that inflicted heavy Syrian losses, and after Israeli Air Force jets flew over Syrian units in a symbolic show of support of Hussein, but did not engage. An agreement brokered by Egyptian President Nasser between Arafat and Hussein led to an end to the fighting on 27 September. Nasser died the following day of a heart attack. On 13 October Hussein signed an agreement with Arafat to regulate the fedayeen's presence, but the Jordanian army attacked again in January 1971. The fedayeen were driven out of Jordanian cities one by one until 2,000 fedayeen surrendered after being encircled in a forest near Ajloun on 17 July, marking the end of the conflict.
![Jordanian King meets advisors on events of Black September, 17 September 1970](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/da/Jordanian_King_meets_advisors_on_events_of_Black_September%2C_17_September_1970.png)
Jordan allowed the fedayeen to leave for Lebanon through Syria, an event that led to the Lebanese Civil War in 1975. The Black September Organization was founded the same year, named after the conflict. The organization claimed responsibility for the assassination of Jordanian prime minister
Wasfi Tal
Wasfi Tal ( ar, وصفي التل; also known as Wasfi Tell; 19 January 1919 – 28 November 1971) was a Jordanian politician, statesman and general. He served as the 15th Prime Minister of Jordan for three separate terms, 1962–63, 1965–67 a ...
in 1971, and the highly publicized 1972 Munich massacre against Israeli athletes.
In a speech to the Jordanian parliament on 15 March 1972, Hussein announced his "King Hussein's federation plan, United Arab Kingdom" plan. Unlike the unitary state that had existed between the West Bank and Jordan during Jordanian annexation of the West Bank, Jordan's annexation of the West Bank (1950–1967), this plan envisaged two Federation, federal entities on each bank of the Jordan River. According to the proposal, the two districts of the federation would be autonomous, excluding the military and the foreign and security affairs that would be determined by an Amman central government. But the implementation of the plan was to be conditional upon achieving a peace agreement between Israel and Jordan. Ultimately, Hussein's proposal was ruled out after it was vehemently rejected by Israel, the PLO, and several Arab states.
Yom Kippur War
After the 1967 war, Gunnar Jarring was appointed by the UN as a special envoy for the Middle East peace process, leading the Jarring Mission.
The talks between Arab countries and Israel resulted in a deadlock.
[The Jarring initiative and the response]
" ''Israel's Foreign Relations'', Selected Documents, vols.1–2, 1947–1974. Retrieved 9 June 2005. The stalemate led to renewed fears of another war between Arab countries and Israel. Worried that Jordan would be dragged into another war unprepared, Hussein sent Zaid Al-Rifai to Egyptian president Anwar Sadat in December 1972 to inquire. Sadat informed Al-Rifai that he had been planning a limited incursion in the Sinai that would allow some political manoeuvring. Sadat then invited Al-Rifai and Hussein to a summit on 10 September 1973 with him and Hafez Al-Assad, who had become president of Syria. The summit ended with a restoration of ties between Jordan, Egypt, and Syria. Sadat disclosed to Assad and Hussein his intention to initiate military action. Hussein refused Sadat's request to allow the fedayeen's return to Jordan but agreed that in case of a military operation, Jordanian troops would play a limited defensive role in assisting the Syrians in the Golan Heights.
![King Hussein while in Mafraq 12 July, 1974](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/52/King_Hussein_while_in_Mafraq_12_July%2C_1974.jpg)
Egypt and Syria launched the Yom Kippur War against Israel in the Sinai and in the Golan Heights on 6 October 1973 without Hussein's knowledge. Between 10 September and 6 October, Hussein secretly met with Israeli prime minister
Golda Meir
Golda Meir, ; ar, جولدا مائير, Jūldā Māʾīr., group=nb (born Golda Mabovitch; 3 May 1898 – 8 December 1978) was an Israeli politician, teacher, and '' kibbutznikit'' who served as the fourth prime minister of Israel from 1969 to ...
in Tel Aviv on 25 September. Israeli leaks of the meeting led to rumors in the Arab World that Hussein had tipped off Meir about Arab intentions.
Hussein only discussed with Meir what both already knew, that the Syrian army was on alert. On 13 October Jordan joined the war and sent the 40thbrigade to assist the Syrians in the Golan Heights. Some see it as ironic that it was the same brigade that had been sent to deter the Syrian invasion during Black September in 1970. Subsequent peace talks with Israel collapsed; while Jordan wanted a complete Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank, Israel preferred to retain control but with Jordanian administration.
In the 1974 Arab League summit held in Morocco on 26 October, a Fatah plot to assassinate Hussein upon his arrival was uncovered by the Moroccan authorities. The plot did not deter Hussein from joining the summit, but at the end Jordan had to join all the Arab countries in recognizing the PLO as "the sole representative of the Palestinian people," a diplomatic defeat for Hussein. The relationship between Jordan and the United States deteriorated when Jordan refused to join the Camp David Accords. The Accords formed the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel, and allowed the withdrawal of Israel from the Sinai. In 1978 Hussein went to Baghdad for the first time since 1958; there, he met Iraqi politician Saddam Hussein. When Saddam became president of Iraq in 1979, Hussein supported Saddam's Iran–Iraq War that stretched from 1980 to 1988. The relationship grew as Saddam provided Jordan with subsidized oil, and Jordan allowed Iraq to use the Port of Aqaba for its exports.
Involvement in peace initiatives
When the PLO moved to Lebanon from Jordan after 1970, repeated attacks and counter-attacks occurred in southern Lebanon between the PLO and Israel. Two major Israeli incursions into Lebanon occurred in 1978 South Lebanon conflict, 1978, and the other in 1982 Lebanon War, 1982, the latter conflict troubled Hussein as the IDF had laid siege to Beirut. The PLO was to be expelled from Lebanon, and Ariel Sharon, the Israeli Defense minister, suggested they be moved to Jordan where the monarchy would be toppled and Jordan would serve as an "alternative Palestinian homeland." Sharon boasted: "One speech by me will make King Hussein realize that the time has come to pack his bags." However, Arafat rejected Sharon's suggestion, and the fedayeen were transported to Tunisia under American cover.
![Jimmy Carter with King Hussein of Jordan the Shah of Iran and Shahbanou of Iran - NARA - 177332 04](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/48/Jimmy_Carter_with_King_Hussein_of_Jordan_the_Shah_of_Iran_and_Shahbanou_of_Iran_-_NARA_-_177332_04.jpg)
In 1983 American president Ronald Reagan suggested a peace plan that became known as the Reagan plan, similar to Hussein's 1972 federation plan. Hussein and Arafat both agreed to the plan on 1 April, but the PLO's executive office rejected it. A year and a half later, a renewed effort by Hussein to jump start the peace process culminated in the establishment of a Jordan–PLO accord that sought a peaceful resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, an unprecedented milestone for the PLO and a Jordanian diplomatic victory. The accord was opposed by Israel and garnered no international support from either the United States or the Soviet Union. Around the same time, Hussein met Israel prime minister Shimon Peres on 19 July 1985 in the United Kingdom, where Peres assented to the accord, but later the rest of his government opposed it due to the PLO's involvement. Subsequent talks between the PLO and Jordan collapsed after the PLO refused to make concessions; in a speech Hussein announced that "after two long attempts, I and the government of Jordan hereby announce that we are unable to continue to coordinate politically with the PLO leadership until such time as their word becomes their bond, characterized by commitment, credibility and constancy."
Jordan started a crackdown on the PLO by closing their offices in Amman after the Israeli minister of defense, Yitzhak Rabin, requested it from Hussein in a secret meeting. Jordan announced a $1.3billion five-year development plan for the West Bank, in a bid to enhance its image in the West Bank residents at the expense of the PLO. Around the same time, Hussein became troubled after he heard that Israel had been selling American weapons to Iran, thereby lengthening the conflict between Iraq and Iran, both supporters of the PLO. The relationship between Hussein and Saddam became very closeHussein visited Baghdad 61 times between 1980 and 1990, and Saddam used Hussein to relay messages to several countries, including the US and Britain. In June 1982, after Iran's victory seemed imminent, Hussein personally carried to Saddam sensitive photographic intelligence forwarded to him by the US. In return, Saddam provided incentives for Jordanian exports to Iraq, which accounted for a quarter of all Jordan's exports, valued at $212.3million in 1989. Iraqi aid helped Jordan's finances; Hussein had felt it humiliating to keep asking Arab states of the Persian Gulf, Gulf countries for assistance. Hussein made a little-known attempt to heal the rift between the two Ba'ath regimes of Iraq and Syria in April 1986. The meeting between Hafez Al-Assad and Saddam Hussein occurred at an airbase in Al-Jafr, Jordan, Al-Jafr in the eastern Jordanian desert. The talks lasted for a day, after which no progress was made. Saddam was angry at Al-Assad for supporting Iran against an Arab country, Iraq, and Al-Assad was adamant about establishing a union between Iraq and Syria, which Saddam rejected.
On 11 April 1987, after Yitzhak Shamir became prime minister of Israel, Hussein engaged in direct talks with Shamir's foreign minister, Peres, in London. After reaching an agreement between Hussein and Peres on establishing an international peace conference, Shamir and the rest of the ministers in his cabinet rejected the proposal. On 1987 Arab League summit, 8 November 1987 Jordan hosted an Arab League summit; Hussein enjoyed good relations with rival Arab blocs, and he acted as conciliatory intermediate. He helped mobilize Arab support for Iraq against Iran, and for Jordan's peace efforts, and helped to end the decade-long Arab boycott of Egypta boycott that began after it unilaterally signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1979. Hussein described the summit as one of the best moments in his life.
Disengagement from West Bank
![King Hussein of Jordan with Brunei Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah in cockpit, 1984](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/ba/King_Hussein_of_Jordan_with_Brunei_Sultan_Hassanal_Bolkiah_in_cockpit%2C_1984.jpg)
On 9 December 1987 an Israeli truck driver ran over four Palestinians in a
Gaza refugee camp, sparking unrest that spread to violent demonstrations in the West Bank. What began as an uprising to achieve Palestinian independence against the Israeli occupation turned into an upsurge of support for the PLO, which had orchestrated the uprising, and consequently diminished Jordanian influence in the West Bank. Jordanian policy on the West Bank had to be reconsidered following renewed fears that Israel would revive its proposal for Jordan to become an "alternative Palestinian homeland." US Secretary of State George P. Shultz set up a peace process that became known as the Schulz Initiative. It called for Jordan rather than the PLO to represent the Palestinians; however, when Schultz contacted Hussein about the plan, he reversed his position and told him it was a matter for the PLO to decide.
The orchestrators of the Intifada were the Unified National Leadership of the Uprising, which issued its 10th communiqué on 11 March 1988, urging its followers to "intensify the mass pressure against the [Israel] occupation army and the settlers and against collaborators and personnel of the Jordanian regime." West Bank Palestinians deviation from the Jordanian state highlighted the need for a revision in Jordan's policy, and Jordanian nationalism, Jordanian nationalists began to argue that Jordan would be better off without the Palestinians and without the West Bank. Adnan Abu Oudeh, a Palestinian descendant who was Hussein's political advisor, Prime Minister Zaid Al-Rifai, army chief of staff Zaid ibn Shaker, The Royal Hashemite Court, Royal Court chief Marwan Kasim, and mukhabarat director Tariq Alaeddin, helped the King prepare West Bank disengagement plans. The Jordanian Ministry of Occupied Territories Affairs was abolished on 1 July 1988, its responsibilities taken over by the Palestinian Affairs Department. On 28 July Jordan terminated the West Bank development plan. Two days later a royal decree dissolved the
House of Representatives
House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...
, thereby removing West Bank representation in the Parliament. In a televised speech on 1 August, Hussein announced the "severing of Jordan's legal and administrative ties with the West Bank," essentially surrendering claims of sovereignty over the West Bank. The move revoked the Jordanian citizenship of Palestinians in the West Bank (who had obtained it since Jordan annexed the territory in 1950), but not that of Palestinians residing in Jordan. Nevertheless, the Hashemite custodianship over the Muslim and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem was retained. Israeli politicians were stunned, thinking it was a political manoeuvre so that the Palestinians could show support for Hussein, but later realized that it represented a shift in Jordan's policy after Hussein asked his West Bank supporters not to issue petitions demanding that he relent. In a meeting in November 1988 the PLO accepted all United Nations resolutions and agreed to recognize Israel.
1989 riots
Jordan's disengagement from the West Bank led to a slowing of the Economy of Jordan, Jordanian economy.
The Jordanian dinar lost a third of its value in 1988, and Jordan's foreign debt reached a figure double that of its gross national product (GNP).
Jordan introduced austerity measures to combat the economic crisis.
On 16 April 1989 the government increased prices of gasoline, licensing fees, alcoholic beverages, and cigarettes, between 15% to 50%, in a bid to increase revenues in accordance with an agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The IMF agreement was to enable Jordan to reschedule its $6billion debt, and obtain loans totaling $275million over 18months.
On 18 April riots in Ma'an spread to other southern towns such as Al-Karak and Tafila, where the ''New York Times'' reported that around 4,000 people gathered in the streets and clashed with the Public Security Directorate (Jordan), police,
resulting in six protesters killed and 42 injured, and two policemen killed and 47 injured.
Despite the fact that the protests were triggered by a troubling economic situation, the crowds' demands became political.
Protesters accused Zaid Al-Rifai's government of rampant corruption and demanded that the martial law in place since 1957 be lifted and Elections in Jordan, parliamentary elections be resumed.
The last parliamentary election had taken place 1967 Jordanian general election, in 1967, just before Jordan lost the West Bank, and when the parliament's tenure ended in 1971, no elections could be held due to the fact that the West Bank was under Israeli occupation, but the West Bank's status became irrelevant after Jordan's disengagement in 1988.
Hussein relented to the demands by dismissing Al-Rifai, and appointed Zaid ibn Shaker to form a new government.
In 1986 a new electoral law was passed, which allowed the reintroduction of parliamentary elections to proceed smoothly.
The cabinet passed amendments to the electoral law that removed articles dealing with West Bank representation.
In May 1989, just before the elections, Hussein announced his intention to appoint a 60-person royal commission to draft a reformist document named the National Charter.
The National Charter sought to set a timetable for democratization acts.
Although most members of the commission were regime loyalists, it included a number of opposition figures and dissidents.
1989 Jordanian general election, Parliamentary elections were held on 8 November 1989, the first in 22 years.
[Dieter Nohlen, Florian Grotz & Christof Hartmann (2001) ''Elections in Asia: A data handbook, Volume I'', p.148 ] The National Charter was drafted and ratified by parliament in 1991.
Gulf War
![ACC stamp 1990 B2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a6/ACC_stamp_1990_B2.jpg)
A UN-brokered ceasefire became active in July 1988, ending the Iran-Iraq war. Hussein had advised Saddam after 1988 to polish his image in the West by visiting other countries, and by appearing at the United Nations for a speech, but to no avail. The Iraqi-Jordanian relationship developed into the Arab Cooperation Council (ACC), which also included Egypt and Yemen, on 16 February 1989, serving as a counter to the Gulf Cooperation Council. Saddam's invasion of Kuwait on 2 August 1990 led six months later to international intervention to expel Iraqi forces from Kuwait in what became known as the Gulf War. Iraq's invasion of Kuwait caught Hussein by surprise; he was the ACC chairman at that time, and a personal friend of Saddam's. After informing the American president George H. W. Bush of his intention to travel to Baghdad to contain the situation, Hussein travelled to Baghdad on 3 August for a meeting with Saddam; at the meeting, the latter announced his intention to withdraw Iraqi troops from Kuwait only if Arab governments refrained from issuing statements of condemnation, and no foreign troops were involved. On Hussein's way back from Baghdad, Egypt issued a condemnation of the Iraqi invasion. To Hussein's dismay, Egyptian president Husni Mubarak refused to reverse his position and called for Iraq's unconditional withdrawal from Kuwait. An Arab League summit held in Cairo issued a condemnation of Iraq with a fourteen-vote majority, despite calls by Jordan's foreign minister Marwan Al-Kasim that this move would hinder Hussein's efforts to reach a peaceful resolution. Both Kuwait and Saudi Arabia viewed Hussein with suspicionthey distrusted him and believed he was planning to obtain a share of Kuwait's wealth.
On 6 August American troops arrived at the Kuwait-Saudi Arabian border, Saddam's conditions were ignored, and Hussein's role as mediator was undermined. Saddam then announced that his invasion had become "irreversible," and on 8 August he annexed Kuwait. Jordan, along with the international community, refused to recognize the Iraqi-installed regime in Kuwait. The United States, seeing Jordan's neutrality as siding with Saddam, cut its aid to Jordanaid on which Jordan depended; Gulf countries soon followed. Hussein's position in the international community was severely affected, so severe that he privately discussed his intention to abdicate. Jordan's public opinion was overwhelmingly against international intervention, and against Gulf rulers who were perceived to be greedy and corrupt. Hussein's popularity among Jordanians reached its zenith, and anti-Western demonstrations filled the streets. But Western pundits viewed Hussein's actions as impulsive and emotional, claiming that he could have dampened Jordanian public support for Iraq through better leadership. Hussein's brother, Crown Prince Prince Hassan bin Talal, Hassan, also disagreed with Hussein, but the King refused to recognize Saddam's wrongdoings. In late August and early September Hussein visited twelve Western and Arab capitals in an effort to promote a peaceful resolution. He finished his tour by flying directly to Baghdad to meet Saddam, where he warned: "Make a brave decision and withdraw your forces; if you don't, you will be forced out." Saddam was adamant but agreed to Hussein's request to release Western nationals who were being held as hostages. Threats of a war between Israel and Iraq were rising, and in December 1990 Hussein relayed a message to Saddam saying that Jordan would not tolerate any violations of its territory. Jordan dispatched an armored division to its borders with Iraq, and Hussein's eldest son Abdullah II of Jordan, Abdullah was in charge of a Cobra helicopter squadron. Jordan also concentrated its forces near its border with Israel. Adding to Jordan's deteriorating situation was the arrival of 400,000 Palestinian refugees from Kuwait, who had all been working there. By 28 February 1991 the international coalition had successfully cleared Iraqi forces from Kuwait.
Peace with Israel
Jordan participated in the imposition of economic sanctions against Iraq even though the sanctions would severely affect its economy. The effects of the Gulf War, the sanctions on Iraq, and the flow of refugees to Jordan were estimated by a UN report to be $1.5billion out of a gross domestic product (GDP) of $4.2billion in 1990, and $3.6billion out of a GDP of $4.7billion in 1991. The end of the Gulf War coincided with the end of the Cold War. This allowed the United States to play a more active role in solving the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The Bush administration were still angry at Hussein for the Gulf War events but realized they needed Jordan's participation in any peace process. Hussein agreed to an American request to join an international peace conference so that Jordan could start repairing its relationship with the United States and end its political isolation. Hussein's moves towards democratization in 1989 and his stance during the 1990 Gulf War had won him considerable popularity across Jordan's political spectrum. But when Hussein replaced his conservative prime minister, Mudar Badran, with liberal Palestinian Taher Al-Masri, who was in favor of peace negotiations with Israel, the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood, Muslim BrotherhoodJordan's main opposition group, who at that time occupied 22 out of 80 seats in the House of Representatives, and whose members and support came mostly from Palestinians in the countryvehemently rejected the new prime minister by voting against him during the vote of confidence. The Brotherhood also refused to participate in the National Congress where the King hoped to gather support for a peace settlement.
Hussein was tasked by the United States with forming a joint Palestinian-Jordanian delegation to participate in the Madrid Conference of 1991, Madrid Peace Conference. The 28-member delegation consisted of 14 Jordanians and 14 Palestinians. Along with solving the Palestinian problem, Jordan sought to safeguard its interests in relation to security, the economy, water, and the environment. The peace conference convened on 30 October 1991, with delegations representing all parties to the conflict, the United States and the Soviet Union as co-sponsors, and the United Nations as observer. The conference set a framework for negotiations, and PLO representatives offered to accept a Palestinian state under a confederation with Jordan. At home, the Muslim Brotherhood considered Al-Masri and his government as too liberal, and the Brotherhood merged with independent Islamists and formed the Islamic Action Front (IAF), increasing its representation to 34 in the 80-member House of Representative, a force strong enough to bring down the royally appointed government with a motion of a vote of no confidence. Hussein then replaced Al-Masri with his conservative cousin Zaid ibn Shaker. Subsequent peace talks continued in Washington, D.C., stretching from December 1991 to September 1993.
![Hussein Clinton Rabin](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0c/Hussein_Clinton_Rabin.jpg)
Hussein could not participate in the details of the talks, a task he handed to his brother Hassan. Hussein was referred to the Mayo Clinic in the United States after having urological problems; he had his left kidney removed after tests showed his ureter contained precancerous cells. When Hussein went back healed to Jordan, he received a hero's welcomea third of Jordan's population filled the streets to greet him. On 23 November 1992 he gave an unusually aggressive speech. He called on extremists on both the right and left of the political spectrum to end their opposition to the peace negotiations, denounced what he saw as the Gulf countries' undemocratic nature, and called on Saddam to introduce democracy to Iraq. Meanwhile, Yitzhak Rabin, under the leftist Israeli Labor Party, Labor Party, emerged as prime minister of Israel. Thus, the PLO and Israeli representatives were quick to reach an agreement, which culminated in the 1993 Oslo Accords. The Accords were held in secrecy between Arafat and Rabin without Hussein's knowledge, completely marginalizing Jordan and the Palestinian-Jordanian delegation in Washington.
The parliamentary elections held on 1993 Jordanian general election, 8 November 1993 were the first multi-party elections since 1956, but the proportional representation voting system was replaced by the controversial one man, one vote system. The latter system was introduced to limit the Islamist opposition's representation in the House of Representatives, by gerrymandering Palestinian majority areas and encouraging Independent (politics), independents over Partisan (political), partisan candidates. Consequently, the IAF's seats decreased from 34 to 21 seats out of 80. On 25 July 1994 Rabin and Hussein appeared at the White House and signed the Washington declaration, which announced the "end of the state of belligerency." Subsequent negotiations culminated in the Israel–Jordan peace treaty, signed on 26 October in a ceremony in Wadi Araba. The treaty was a culmination of over 58 secret meetings over 31 years between Hussein and Israeli leaders. The treaty recognized Hashemite custodianship of Jerusalem holy sites, Jordan's role in Jerusalem's holy sites, which angered Arafat who had sought such a position. Jordan's relations with the United States greatly improved: $700million worth of Jordan's debt was forgiven by the United States Congress, and Bill Clinton's administration authorized a substantial flow of aid to Jordan. After 1995 Hussein became increasingly critical of Saddam's rule in Iraq.
On 4 November 1995 the Israeli Prime Minister Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated by a Jewish extremist, who aimed to undermine Rabin's peace efforts with the Palestinians. Due to the close relationship forged with Rabin during the negotiations of the treaty, Hussein was invited to give a speech during Rabin's funeral in Jerusalem. This was the first time Hussein had been in Jerusalem since the 1967 war. Hussein drew parallels between Rabin's assassination and his grandfather's assassination in 1951: "We are not ashamed, nor are we afraid, nor are we anything but determined to continue the legacy for which my friend fell, as did my grandfather in this city when I was with him and but a boy."
Jordan's signing of a peace treaty with Israel, and other issues, were met with disdain by Syria's president Hafez Al-Assad. The CIA handed the King a detailed report in December 1995 warning him of a Syrian plot to assassinate him and his brother Hassan. A month later, the CIA sent Hussein another report warning Jordan of Iraqi plots to attack Western targets in Jordan to undermine Jordan's security due to its support for the Iraqi opposition. In Israel, Shimon Peres of the leftist Labor Party and Benjamin Netanyahu of the right-wing Likud party, were competing for the post of prime minister. Hussein's popularity in Israel had peaked after the peace treaty was signed, and he was expected to express support for a candidate. Hussein initially remained neutral, but later expressed support for Netanyahu. Efraim Halevy, then head of the Israeli intelligence agency (Mossad), claims that Hussein had preferred Netanyahu over Peres as he had deeply mistrusted the latter. The Israeli general election held on 1996 Israeli general election, 29 May 1996 witnessed Netanyahu's ascension to the prime ministry.
Tensions with Israel
![William Cohen with King Hussein I of Jordan, 1997](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/16/William_Cohen_with_King_Hussein_I_of_Jordan%2C_1997.jpg)
Hussein's support for Netanyahu soon backfired. Israel's actions during the 1996 Qana massacre in Southern Lebanon, the Likud government's decision to build settlements in East Jerusalem, and the events at the Temple Mount where clashes between Palestinian and Israeli police ensued after Israeli tunnel diggings around the Mount, generated an uproar of criticism for Netanyahu in the Arab World. On 9 March 1997 Hussein sent Netanyahu a three-page letter expressing his disappointment. The King lambasted Netanyahu, with the letter's opening sentence stating: "My distress is genuine and deep over the accumulating tragic actions which you have initiated at the head of the Government of Israel, making peace – the worthiest objective of my life – appear more and more like a distant elusive mirage."
Four days later, on 13 March, a Jordanian soldier patrolling the borders between Jordan and Israel in the north near the Island of Peace, Island of Peace massacre, killed seven Israeli schoolgirls and wounded six others. The King, who was on an official visit to Spain, returned home immediately. He travelled to the Israeli town of Beit Shemesh to offer his condolences to the grieving families of the Israeli children killed. He went on his knees in front of the families, telling them that the incident was "a crime that is a shame for all of us. I feel as if I have lost a child of my own. If there is any purpose in life it will be to make sure that all the children no longer suffer the way our generation did." His gesture was received very warmly in Israel, and Hussein sent the families $1million in total as compensation for the loss of life. The soldier was determined to be mentally unstable by a Jordanian military tribunal and was sentenced to 20years in prison, which he served entirely.
Clashes between Israeli forces and Palestinian groups in Gaza and the West Bank surfaced. Hussein's wife, Queen Noor of Jordan, Queen Noor, later claimed her husband was having trouble sleeping: "Everything he had worked for all his life, every relationship he had painstakingly built on trust and respect, every dream of peace and prosperity he had had for Jordan's children, was turning into a nightmare. I really did not know how much more Hussein could take."
On 27 September 1997 eight Mossad agents entered Jordan using fake Canadian passports and attempted to assassinate Jordanian citizen Khaled Mashal, head of the Palestinian group Hamas. Hussein was preparing for a 30-year Hamas-Israel truce three days prior to the attempt, after Hamas had launched two attacks in Jerusalem. Two Mossad agents followed Mashal to his office and injected poison into his ears, but they were caught by Mashal's bodyguard. The two agents were then held by the Jordanian police, while the six other agents hid in the Israeli embassy. Furious, Hussein met with an Israeli delegate who attempted to explain the situation; the King said in a speech about the incident that he felt that somebody "had spat in his face." Jordanian authorities requested Netanyahu to provide an antidote to save Mashal's life, but Netanyahu refused to do so. Jordan then threatened to storm the Israeli embassy and capture the rest of the Mossad team, but Israel argued that it would be against the Geneva Conventions. Jordan replied that the Geneva Conventions "do not apply to terrorists," and a Joint Special Operations Command (Jordan), special operations team headed by Hussein's son Abdullah II of Jordan, Abdullah was put in charge of the operation. Hussein called American President Clinton and requested his intervention, threatening to annul the treaty if Israel did not provide the antidote. Clinton later managed to get Israel's approval to reveal the name of the antidote, and complained about Netanyahu: "This man is impossible!" Khaled Mashal recovered, but Jordan's relations with Israel deteriorated and Israeli requests to contact Hussein were rebuffed. The Mossad operatives were released by Jordan after Israel agreed to release 23 Jordanian and 50 Palestinian prisoners including Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.
Mounting opposition in Jordan to the peace treaty with Israel led Hussein to put greater restrictions on freedom of speech. Several dissidents were imprisoned including Laith Shubeilat, a prominent Islamist. A few months into his imprisonment, the King personally gave Shubeilat, his fiercest critic, a ride home from the Correction centers in Jordan, Swaqa prison.
However, the crackdown led the opposition groups in Jordan to boycott the 1997 Jordanian general election, 1997 parliamentary elections. In 1998 Jordan refused a secret request from Netanyahu to attack Iraq using Jordanian airspace after claiming Saddam held weapons of mass destruction.
Illness, death and funeral
![Royal Jordanian 1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d1/Royal_Jordanian_1.jpg)
In May 1998 Hussein, a heavy smoker, was admitted to the Mayo Clinic Hospital (Rochester), Mayo Clinic, but doctors were unable to diagnose his ailment.
Hussein returned to the clinic in July after suffering severe fevers; doctors then diagnosed him with Non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
He stayed in the clinic until the end of 1998, while his brother Hassan, who had been crown prince since 1965, acted as regent.
He was given six courses of chemotherapy for his lymph gland cancer over a five-month period.
Hussein gained the respect of the Mayo Clinic staff for his warmth and kindness; on one occasion, a janitor cried uncontrollably after Hussein prepared a birthday party for her in his suite.
In October 1998 Bill Clinton invited Hussein, during his stay at the clinic for chemotherapy treatment, to attend the Wye River Memorandum, Wye Plantation talks after a stalemate was reached between the Israeli and Palestinian delegations.
Hussein, who looked bald and weakened, arrived and urged both Arafat and Netanyahu to overcome the obstacles.
Encouraged by his presence, the two leaders agreed to resolve their difficulties.
Hussein received a standing ovation at the ceremony and praise from Clinton for interrupting his treatment and coming over.
At home, 1998 was a difficult year for Jordanians: GDP growth had slowed considerably and could not keep pace with an accelerating population growth. Other incidents included a government scandal involving contamination of the country's water supply. Samih Batikhi, the director of the General Intelligence Directorate (Jordan), General Intelligence Directorate (mukhabarat), visited Hussein during his stay at the Mayo Clinic to keep him updated. Batikhi discredited the King's brother Hassan, and often voiced his support for Hussein's eldest son Abdullah as successor. Abdullah, who was 36 years old at the time, enjoyed great support from the army. He was crown prince when he was born in 1962, but Hussein transferred the title to his brother Hassan in 1965 due to political uncertainty back then. King Hussein had changed his line of succession a total of four times: "From his brother Muhammad, to his infant son Abdullah, to his second brother Prince Hassan bin Talal, Hassan, and again to his then-grown-up son Abdullah." On his way back to Jordan in January 1999, Hussein stopped in London.
Doctors advised him to rest and stay in England for a few weeks, as he was still too fragile to travel.
According to Jordanian government sources, Hussein stated that:
Upon his arrival in Jordan, after a six-month medical absence from the country, he announced he was "completely cured."
Hussein returned and publicly criticized his brother Hassan's management of Jordanian internal affairs. He also accused him of abusing his powers as regent and crown prince.
On 24 January 1999, Hussein replaced Hassan with his son Abdullah as heir apparent.
Hassan gracefully accepted the King's decision on television, and congratulated his nephew Abdullah on his designation as crown prince.
![King Hussein funeral in Amman motorcade](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b2/King_Hussein_funeral_in_Amman_motorcade.jpg)
On 25 January, the day after he proclaimed Abdullah as crown prince, Hussein returned abruptly to the United States, after experiencing feversa sign of recurrent lymphoma.
On Tuesday 2 February, the king received a Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, bone marrow transplant, which failed. It was thereupon reported that Hussein had suffered internal organ failure, and was in critical condition.
On 4 February, and at his request, he was flown to Jordan where he arrived in a coma.
Fighter jets from several countries flew with his plane as it passed over their territories, including the United States, Britain, and Israel.
Hussein arrived at the King Hussein Medical Center in Amman where it was raining heavily, yet thousands flocked from all over Jordan and gathered at the main entrance.
The crowds chanted his name, some weeping, others holding his pictures.
At 11:43 on 7 February, Hussein was pronounced dead.
Hussein's flag-draped coffin, accompanied by Honor guard, honor guard troops wearing Keffiyeh, was taken on a 90-minute procession through the streets of the capital city of
Amman
Amman (; ar, عَمَّان, ' ; Ammonite language, Ammonite: 𐤓𐤁𐤕 𐤏𐤌𐤍 ''Rabat ʻAmān'') is the capital and largest city of Jordan, and the country's economic, political, and cultural center. With a population of 4,061,150 a ...
.
An estimated 800,000 Jordanians braved chilly winds to bid their leader farewell. Riot police were stationed along the nine-mile-long route to try to hold back the crowds who scrambled for a glimpse of the coffin.
The UN General Assembly held an Emergency Special Session in "Tribute to the Memory of His Majesty the King of Jordan" on the same day. The King's funeral was held in the Raghadan Palace. The funeral was the largest gathering of foreign leaders since 1995, and it was the first time that Syrian President Hafez Al-Assad was in the same room with Israeli statesmen.
Khaled Mashal was also in the same room as the Mossad leaders who had tried to assassinate him just two years earlier.
Four American presidents were present: Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush, Jimmy Carter, and Gerald Ford.
Bill Clinton said about the funeral: "I don't think I have ever seen a greater outpouring of the world's appreciation and the world's love for a human being than I've seen today." Hussein was succeeded as king by his eldest son, Abdullah II.
Legacy
Image
Israeli writer
Avi Shlaim
Avraham "Avi" Shlaim (born 31 October 1945) is an Israeli-British historian, Emeritus Professor of International Relations at the University of Oxford and fellow of the British Academy. He is one of Israel's New Historians, a group of Israeli ...
sees that the assassination of Hussein's grandfather Abdullah I of Jordan, King AbdullahI in Jerusalem was the most formative event in Hussein's life, as he had witnessed the event personally at the age of 15. Two years later, the 17-year-old schoolboy would become King. Hussein inherited the throne to a young Kingdom, whose neighbors questioned its legitimacy, along with the Jordanian-controlled West Bank. From an early age he had to shoulder a heavy responsibility. The Kingdom had few natural resources, and a large Palestinian refugee population. He was able to gain his country considerable political weight on a global scale despite its limited potential. In 1980, an Israeli intelligence report described Hussein to be as "a man trapped on a bridge burning at both ends, with crocodiles in the river beneath him." Hussein was able to survive through four turbulent decades of the Arab-Israel conflict and the Cold War, successfully balancing pressures from
Arab nationalists
Arab nationalism ( ar, القومية العربية, al-Qawmīya al-ʿArabīya) is a nationalist ideology that asserts the Arabs are a nation and promotes the unity of Arab people, celebrating the glories of Arab civilization, the language and ...
,
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
,
Western countries
The Western world, also known as the West, primarily refers to the various nations and states in the regions of Europe, North America, and Oceania. and Israel.
![King Hussein inaugurating police station in Amman, 24 December 1956](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4b/King_Hussein_inaugurating_police_station_in_Amman%2C_24_December_1956.png)
Hussein considered the Palestinian issue to be the overriding national security issue, even after Jordan lost the West Bank in 1967 and after it renounced claims to it in 1988. Initially, Hussein attempted to unite both banks of the Jordan River as one people, but with the formation of the PLO in the 1960s, it became difficult to maintain such a policy. He was relentless in pursuit of peace, viewing that the only way to solve the conflict was by peaceful means, excluding his decision to join the war in 1967. The decision cost him half his kingdom and his grandfather's legacy. After the war he emerged as an advocate for Palestinian statehood. After renouncing ties to the West Bank in 1988, he remained committed to solving the conflict. His 58 secret meetings held with Israeli representatives since 1963 culminated in the signing of the Israel–Jordan peace treaty in 1994, which he considered to be his "crowning achievement."
Hussein's policy of co-opting the opposition was his most revered. He was the region's longest reigning leader, even though he was subject to dozens of assassination attempts and plots to overthrow him. He was known to pardon political opponents and dissidents, including those who had attempted to assassinate him. He entrusted some of them with senior posts in the government. On one occasion before his death, he gave his fiercest critic a ride home from prison after having ordered his release.
He was described as being a "benign dictatorship, benign authoritarian."
![Hussein 1950s](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e4/Hussein_1950s.jpg)
During his 46-year-reign, Hussein, who was seen as a charismatic, courageous, and humble leader, became widely known among Jordanians as the "builder king."
He turned the Kingdom from a backwater divided polity into a reasonably stable well-governed modern state.
By 1999 90% of Jordanians had been born during Hussein's reign.
From the very start, Hussein concentrated on building an economic and industrial infrastructure to stimulate the economy and raise the standard of living.
During the 1960s, Jordan's main industriesincluding phosphate, potash and cementwere developed, and the very first network of highways was built throughout the kingdom.
Social indicators reflect King Hussein's successes.
Whereas in 1950 water, sanitation, and electricity were available to only 10% of Jordanians, at the end of his rule these had reached 99% of the population.
In 1960 only 33% of Jordanians were literate; by 1996 this number had climbed to 85.5%.
In 1961 the average Jordanian consumed a daily intake of 2,198 calories; by 1992 this figure had increased by 37.5% to reach 3,022 calories.
UNICEF statistics show that between 1981 and 1991, Jordan had achieved the world's fastest annual rate of decline in infant mortalityfrom 70 deaths per 1,000 births in 1981 to 37 per 1,000 in 1991, a drop of over 47%.
Hussein established the Al-Amal medical center in 1997, a clinic specializing in cancer treatment in Jordan.
Renamed in 2002 to the King Hussein Cancer Center in honor of the late King, the center is a leading medical facility in the region, treating around 4,000 patients each year.
Criticism
![King Hussein of Jordan dancing dabkeh with bedouins, 1960](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/55/King_Hussein_of_Jordan_dancing_dabkeh_with_bedouins%2C_1960.jpg)
The King disliked paperwork, and had no solid view for the economy. He was dubbed the "fundraiser-in-chief": throughout his reign he managed to obtain foreign aid from different sources, leaving a legacy of a foreign aid-dependent Jordan. British aid in the early 1950s, American aid from 1957 onwards, Gulf aid in the 1960s and 1970s, Arab League and Iraqi aid in the early 1980s, and, after formalizing peace with Israel, American aid in the 1990s.
He was also seen as too lenient toward some ministers who were alleged to be corrupt. The price of establishing peace with Israel in 1994 he had to pay domestically, with mounting Jordanian opposition to Israel concentrating its criticism on the King. The King reacted by introducing restrictions on freedom of speech, and changing the parliamentary electoral law into the one-man, one-vote system in a bid to increase representation of independent regime loyalists and tribal groups at the expense of Islamist and partisan candidates.
The moves impeded Jordan's path towards democracy that had started in 1956 and resumed in 1989.
In 1977, Bob Woodward of ''The Washington Post'' reported that King Hussein received funds from the
CIA
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...
for 20 years. This money was used by the King to establish an intelligence service but was nevertheless criticized for being handled away from the government's supervision.
Personal life
![King Hussein and Princess Muna with sons 1964](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bd/King_Hussein_and_Princess_Muna_with_sons_1964.jpg)
King Hussein married four times and had eleven acknowledged children:
* Dina bint Abdul-Hamid, Sharifa Dina bint Abdul-Hamid (1929–2019), on 19 April 1955. She was an Egyptian-born third cousin of King Hussein's father, Talal of Jordan, King Talal. She was a member of the
Hashemite
The Hashemites ( ar, الهاشميون, al-Hāshimīyūn), also House of Hashim, are the royal family of Jordan, which they have ruled since 1921, and were the royal family of the kingdoms of Hejaz (1916–1925), Syria (1920), and Iraq (1921 ...
family like Hussein and a graduate of Cambridge University and former lecturer in English literature at Cairo University. The marriage was arranged. They separated in 1956 and were divorced in 1957, at which time Princess Dina became known as Her Royal Highness Princess Dina Abdul-Hamid of Jordan. She became an Egyptian citizen in 1963, and in October 1970, Princess Dina of
Jordan
Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...
married Lieutenant Colonel, Lieut-Colonel Asad Sulayman Abd al-Qadir, alias Salah Ta'amari, a Palestinian guerrilla warfare, guerrilla commando who became a high-ranking official in the
Palestine Liberation Organization
The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO; ar, منظمة التحرير الفلسطينية, ') is a Palestinian nationalism, Palestinian nationalist political and militant organization founded in 1964 with the initial purpose of establ ...
.
** Princess Alia bint Hussein (born in 1956). Married first to Nasser Wasfi Mirza, they have one child together, a son, Hussein. They divorced in 1987. She remarried in 1988 to Sayyid Mohammed Al-Saleh; they have two sons, Talal and Abdul-Hamid.
* Princess Muna al-Hussein, Antoinette Gardiner ("Toni Gardiner," born in 1941), on 25 May 1961, titled Princess Muna Al-Hussein from marriage. An award-winning field hockey player and daughter of a British army officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Walter Percy Gardiner, she was given the title ''Her Royal Highness'' Princess Muna al-Hussein, retaining this title after they divorced on 21 December 1972.
** Abdullah II of Jordan, Abdullah II (born in 1962). The current King of Jordan. Married to Queen Rania of Jordan, Rania Al-Yassin. They have four children: Hussein, Crown Prince of Jordan, Crown Prince Hussein, Princess Iman bint Abdullah, Princess Iman, Princess Salma bint Abdullah, Princess Salma and Prince Hashem bin Abdullah, Prince Hashem.
** Prince Faisal bin Hussein (born in 1963). Lieutenant-General, former Commander of
Royal Jordanian Air Force. Currently Deputy Supreme Commander of the Jordanian Armed Forces. Married first to Alia Tabbaa (now known as Princess Alia Tabbaa). They have four children: Princess Ayah bint Faisal, Princess Ayah, Prince Omar bin Faisal, Prince Omar, and twins Princess Sara bint Faisal, Princess Sara and Princess Aisha bint Faisal, Princess Aisha. They divorced in 2008. He remarried in 2010 to Sara Qabbani and divorced in 2013. He is now married to Zeina Lubadeh, with whom he has two sons, Prince Abdullah and Prince Muhammad.
** Princess Aisha bint Hussein (born in 1968, Zein's twin). Brigadier-General of Jordanian Armed Forces. Married to Zeid Juma, they have two children, a son, Aoun, and a daughter, Muna. They are now divorced. She married Ashraf Banayoti in 2016 and divorced him in the same year.
** Princess Zein bint Hussein (born in 1968, Aisha's twin). Married to Majdi Al-Saleh, they have two children: a son Jaafar and a daughter Jumana, and an adopted daughter called Tahani Al-Shawan.
* Alia al-Hussein, Alia Bahauddin Toukan, Queen Alia Al-Hussein (1948–1977), on 24 December 1972, after whom Jordan's international airport (Queen Alia International Airport) is named. She died in a helicopter crash in
Amman
Amman (; ar, عَمَّان, ' ; Ammonite language, Ammonite: 𐤓𐤁𐤕 𐤏𐤌𐤍 ''Rabat ʻAmān'') is the capital and largest city of Jordan, and the country's economic, political, and cultural center. With a population of 4,061,150 a ...
,
Jordan
Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...
, in 1977. An Egyptian-born daughter of Jordan's first ambassador to the United Nations, Sayyid Baha ud-din Toukan.
** Princess Haya bint Hussein (born in 1974). President of the Fédération Équestre Internationale 2008–2014. Formerly married to Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates and Ruler of Dubai. They have two children: Sheikha Jalila and Sheikh Zayed.
** Prince Ali bin Hussein (born in 1975). Married to Rym Brahimi now known as Princess Rym al-Ali. They have two children, Princess Jalilah and Prince Abdullah.
** Abir Muhaisen, (born in 1972, adopted by the couple in 1976).
![King Hussein of Jordan preparing to fly a Vampire aircraft in 1955](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/88/King_Hussein_of_Jordan_preparing_to_fly_a_Vampire_aircraft_in_1955.jpg)
* Queen Noor of Jordan, Lisa Najeeb Halaby (born in 1951), renamed Queen Noor Al-Hussein on her conversion to Islam, married in
Amman
Amman (; ar, عَمَّان, ' ; Ammonite language, Ammonite: 𐤓𐤁𐤕 𐤏𐤌𐤍 ''Rabat ʻAmān'') is the capital and largest city of Jordan, and the country's economic, political, and cultural center. With a population of 4,061,150 a ...
on 15 June 1978.
An Arab-American of Syrian descent, daughter of Najeeb Halaby.
** Hamzah bin Hussein (born in 1980).
Married first to Princess Noor bint Asem, third daughter of Prince Asem bin Nayef, by his first wife, Princess Firouzeh Vokhshouri. Princess Noor became Princess Noor al-Hamzah upon her marriage. Together they have a daughter, Princess Haya. They divorced in 2009. He remarried in 2012 to Princess Basmah Bani Ahmad; they have four daughters and a son: Princess Zein, Princess Noor, Princess Badiya, Princess Nafisa and Prince Hussein.
** Prince Hashim bin Hussein (born in 1981). Married to Princess Fahdah. They have three daughters and two sons: Princess Halaah, Princess Rayet Al-Noor, Princess Fatima Al-Alia, Prince Hussein Haidara and Prince Mohammad Al Hassan.
** Princess Iman bint Hussein (born in 1983).
Married to Zaid Azmi Mirza, together they have a son, Omar.
** Princess Raiyah bint Hussein (born in 1986).
Married to Faris Ned Donovan.
Hussein was an enthusiastic ham radio operator and an Honorary Member of The Radio Society of Harrow and a life member of the American Radio Relay League. He was popular in the amateur radio community and insisted that fellow operators refer to him without his title. His call sign was JY1, which inspired the name for Jordan's first cube-sat satellite, the JY1-SAT, which was launched in 2018.
Hussein was a trained pilot, flying both airplanes and helicopters as a hobby.
In a 1999 interview Henry Kissinger described being flown by Hussein, saying that "...he was a daring pilot, and he would be zooming along at treetop level, and my wife, in order to be politely insistent would say, 'You know I didn't know helicopters could fly so low.' 'Oh!' said the King, 'They can fly lower!' and went below tree top level just skimming along on the ground. That really aged me rapidly."
[Nightline: Hussein of Jordan, ABC Evening News for Friday, 5 February 1999]
Hussein was also an avid fan of motorcycles.
The cover of the paperback version of Queen Noor's book ''Leap of Faith: Memoirs of an Unexpected Life'' features a photo of the King and Queen riding a Harley-Davidson motorcycle.
The King was also a fan of race-car driving, water sports, skiing, and tennis.
From an affair with the American Jewish actress Susan Cabot Hussein had an alleged illegitimate son, Timothy. Susan and Timothy were supported for many years out of the royal privy purse. In 1986 Timothy killed his mother. Timothy served a prison sentence for involuntary manslaughter and died in 2003.
Military ranks
King Hussein I bin Talal I held the following ranks:
* :
** Admiral of the Fleet, Royal Jordanian Navy.
** Field Marshal, Royal Jordanian Army.
** Marshal of the Air Force,
Royal Jordanian Air Force.
* :
** Honorary Field Marshal of the Egyptian Army – 21 February 1955.
* :
** Honorary Air Chief Marshal of the Royal Air Force – 19 July 1966
Ancestry
Writings
*
*
See also
* King Abdullah II
* Hashemites
* List of kings of Jordan
* List of things named after King Hussein
* List of covers of Time magazine (1960s)
References
Bibliography
* Ashton, Nigel (2008). ''King Hussein of Jordan: A Political Life'' (Yale University Press)
excerpt
*
*
*
*
*
*
External links
*
Remembering King Hussein video
{{Authority control
Hussein of Jordan,
1935 births
1999 deaths
Graduates of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst
Victoria College, Alexandria alumni
People educated at Harrow School
Kings of Jordan
House of Hashim
Muslim monarchs
Jordanian Sunni Muslims
Field marshals
Marshals of the air force
Royal Air Force air marshals
Royal Air Force officers holding honorary commissions
Jordanian aviators
Amateur radio people
Deaths from non-Hodgkin lymphoma
People from Amman
Deaths from cancer in Jordan
Jordanian anti-communists
Collars of the Order of Isabella the Catholic
Knights Grand Cross with Collar of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic
Honorary Knights Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order
Bailiffs Grand Cross of the Order of St John
Grand Croix of the Légion d'honneur
Honorary Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath
Knights of the Golden Fleece of Spain
Extraordinary Grades of the Order of Merit (Lebanon)
Grand Crosses of Military Merit
Recipients of the Grand Star of the Decoration for Services to the Republic of Austria
Articles containing video clips
Grand Crosses Special Class of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
Sons of kings
20th-century Jordanian people
Foreign recipients of the Nishan-e-Pakistan
Recipients of the Ronald Reagan Freedom Award