Jordanian news sources reported, on Saturday night, government arrested former Jordanian Crown Prince Hamzah bin Hussein along with 20 others for what he called a “threat to the country’s security.”
Jordan was on alert Sunday after a series of arrests were made following what may have been an attempt to destabilize the government of King Abdullah II.
Hasan Bin Zeid, a member of the royal family, was held on security grounds along with several others, including Bassem Awadallah, a former minister, according to the state-run Petra news agency. The army also asked former Crown Prince Hamza Bin Hussein to cease “movements and activities that might be used to target Jordan’s security and stability,” Petra said. The Washington Post reported that as many as 20 people were arrested.
The crackdown comes as Jordan, a U.S. ally that’s home to as many as 2 million Palestinians and normalized relations with neighboring Israel in 1994, struggles with a worsening squeeze on its finances and a resurgence of Covid-19 cases that have prompted the government to renew restrictions on movement. The U.S. most recently provided the Middle East kingdom with $700 million in August.
“We are closely following the reports and in touch with Jordanian officials,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a statement. “King Abdullah is a key partner of the United States, and he has our full support.”
Security personnel and armored vehicles were seen parked outside royal palaces and patrolling the Dabouq neighborhood of Amman on Saturday. The Washington Post said earlier that Hamza, the eldest son of the late King Hussein and his fourth wife Queen Noor, was under house arrest at his palace in Amman. It cited a senior Middle East intelligence official briefed on the events as saying there was an ongoing investigation into an alleged plot to unseat King Abdullah, Hamza’s older half-brother.
Hamza, in a six-minute video provided to the BBC by his lawyer, said he was “not part of any conspiracy.”
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“I had a visit from the chief of general staff of the Jordanian armed forces this morning in which he informed me that I was not allowed to go out, to communicate with people or to meet with them because in the meetings that I had been present in — or on social media relating to visits that I had made — there had been criticism of the government or the king,” Hamza said in the video, adding that his Internet and phone lines had been cut.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Major General Yousef Huneiti on Saturday denied claims about the arrest of Hamza and said the Prince was merely asked to stop “movements and activities that are used to target” the security and stability of Jordan. He added that the move was part of joint comprehensive investigations undertaken by security agencies, as a result of which Sharif Hassan bin Zaid, Basem Ibrahim Awadallah, and others were arrested.
The army chief indicated that the investigations were ongoing and their results will be announced “with full transparency and clarity.”
Hamza was the crown prince for four years before the title was transferred in 2004 to the current king’s eldest son, Hussein. He has occupied various roles, including brigadier in the Jordanian army.
Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Egypt and other Arab states expressed support for King Abdullah. Saudi Arabia said it supported the Jordanian monarch’s decisions and measures to preserve security and stability and face any attempt to affect them.
”The Biden administration would view the potential of a failed state as detrimental to regional stability,” said Ayham Kamel, the New York-based head of Eurasia Group’s Middle East and Africa research team. “The Israeli security establishment would not look favorably toward any real instability in Jordan that triggers a Palestinian crisis.”