Jordan king, prince in first joint appearance since ‘plot’ crisis

Jordan’s King Abdullah appeared in public Sunday alongside his half-brother Prince Hamzah, state TV showed, their first joint appearance since a palace crisis involving the prince rocked the kingdom.

The images showed a group of Hashemite royals at a mausoleum where their ancestors are buried, on the 100th anniversary since the founding of the kingdom.

The palace Twitter account published a picture of the group at a cemetery with the caption “HM King Abdullah II, HRH Crown Prince Al Hussein… (and) Hamzah bin Al Hussein… visit tomb of HM the late King Abdullah I”.

All were dressed in civilian clothes, apart from Hussein, the heir to the throne, who wore military dress.

Jordan is marking 100 years of survival Sunday as a resource-poor country in a war-ravaged neighbourhood, but the palace crisis and the coronavirus pandemic have overshadowed celebrations.

The government had accused Hamzah — a former crown prince who was sidelined as heir to the throne in favour of Abdullah’s son Hussein in 2004 — of involvement in a conspiracy to “destabilise the kingdom’s security”.

At least 16 people were arrested.

But Abdullah said Wednesday that Hamzah, who has signed a letter pledging his loyalty to the king following mediation by an uncle, was safe in his palace under his “care”.

In an address read out in his name on state television, the king added that “sedition has been nipped in the bud”.