Behind Jordan’s Royal Family Feud, a Prince Who Upstaged a King

SALT, Jordan—After a government hospital listed here ran out of oxygen final thirty day period and 9 Covid-19 sufferers died, the country’s monarch, King Abdullah II, created a short check out to this small farm town. Clad in a military uniform, he berated nearby officers in entrance of Tv set cameras.

Earlier, an indignant group had pounded their fists and footwear on a motor vehicle carrying a courtroom formal, forcing it to velocity away.

The future day, Salt hosted a pretty distinctive royal check out from the king’s 50 {79e59ee6e2f5cf570628ed7ac4055bef3419265de010b59461d891d43fac5627}-brother, Prince Hamzah bin Hussein. The prince, a critic of the king and his government, named at the homes of the deceased and sat and talked with their family members. Two months afterwards, he was invited to return for a classic feast with citizens.

The dueling visits—as Jordan has struggled to consist of the pandemic and repair a sputtering economy—turned out to be 1 of the final straws in a very long-jogging rivalry amongst the king and his younger 50 {79e59ee6e2f5cf570628ed7ac4055bef3419265de010b59461d891d43fac5627}-sibling, according to men and women on both equally sides of the split, in a nation that is an important U.S. ally.

Within days, Prince Hamzah was properly put less than residence arrest and accused by the government of undermining national stability, a shift that has upended politics in the desert kingdom wedged amongst Israel and the occupied West Financial institution, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Syria. He has not been viewed publicly given that. The palace states the prince continues to be at residence “in the care” of the king.