{"id":4603,"date":"2021-04-07T05:20:00","date_gmt":"2021-04-07T05:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/?p=4603"},"modified":"2021-04-07T05:20:00","modified_gmt":"2021-04-07T05:20:00","slug":"nearly-20-arrested-in-an-alleged-plot-against-jordans-king-abdullah-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/2021\/04\/07\/nearly-20-arrested-in-an-alleged-plot-against-jordans-king-abdullah-ii\/","title":{"rendered":"Nearly 20 Arrested in an Alleged Plot Against Jordan\u2019s King Abdullah II"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/national-security\/jordan-coup-abdullah-plot\/2021\/04\/03\/2a517ed2-9498-11eb-a74e-1f4cf89fd948_story.html<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jordanian authorities on Saturday arrested as many as 20 people and sought to restrain the movement of a former crown prince amid what officials called a threat to the \u201csecurity and stability\u201d of a country long regarded as a vital U.S. ally in the Middle East. Prince Hamzeh bin Hussein, the eldest son of the late King Hussein and his American-born fourth wife, Queen Noor, was told to remain at his Amman palace amid an investigation into an alleged plot to unseat his older half-brother, King Abdullah II. The move followed the discovery of what officials described as a complex and far-reaching plot that included at least one other Jordanian royal as well as tribal leaders and members of the country\u2019s political and security establishment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biden administration officials were briefed on the arrests, which come at a time of heightened economic and political tension in a country long regarded as a bulwark of stability and an essential partner in U.S.-led counterterrorism operations. In a formal statement late Saturday, the Jordanian Armed Forces confirmed that multiple arrests had occurred and that Hamzeh had been \u201casked to cease all movements or activities that could be employed to target Jordan\u2019s security and stability.\u201d The statement said that the former crown prince had not been arrested but that \u201ccomprehensive investigations\u201d were underway. In a video statement late Saturday, Hamzeh denied wrongdoing and said the actions against him were an attempt to silence him for speaking out against corruption in Jordan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who stands to gain? \u00a0Internally, I believe the religious anti-Western extremists. \u00a0From its inception, the Jordanian monarchy has had close, cooperative relationships with both the UK and US, lately, especially in counterterrorism efforts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Externally, Jordan’s arch-enemy, Syria under the Al Assads lead the pack, along with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps. \u00a0As for Israel, the right-wing extremists who are pressing to annex the West Bank are no friends of the Jordanians, but Jordan is where they have hoped to expel the West Bank Palestinians. Jordan, along with Lebanon, are weak political entities in a very rough neighborhood.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/national-security\/jordan-coup-abdullah-plot\/2021\/04\/03\/2a517ed2-9498-11eb-a74e-1f4cf89fd948_story.html Jordanian authorities on Saturday arrested as many as 20 people and sought to restrain the movement of a former crown prince amid what officials called a threat to the \u201csecurity and stability\u201d of a country long regarded as a vital U.S. ally in the Middle East. Prince Hamzeh bin Hussein, the eldest son of the late King Hussein and… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":158,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4603","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/158"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4603"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4603\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4653,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4603\/revisions\/4653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}