The suspicions of attempted sedition weighing on the Jordanian prince Hamza become clear on Monday, after a video published by his lawyer, in which he affirms that he will not comply with the recommendations of the staff who went to his palace Amman to ask him to stop all activities aimed at destabilizing Jordan. The Hashemite kingdom was the target of an attempted coup involving a foreign power, foiled this weekend.
While the Kingdom of Jordan is due to celebrate its centenary in mid-April, this model country of stability in the region has been the target of movements threatening its “security” and its “stability”, according to the accusations which do not mention it. ‘an attempted coup against the person of the king. But for the Washington Post, it is indeed King Abdellah II who has been targeted, and the main accused is his half-brother, Prince Hamza, born from the fourth and last marriage of former King Hussein to the princess. Noor, American by birth and also Swedish by her mother.
And if the Jordanian king insisted that the problem be solved as a family and that his half brother was not referred to the State Security Court as recommended by the security services who reported a real threat For the stability and security of the state, Prince Hamza did not hear it that way and now challenges his older brother who is seeking to avoid a public scandal involving the royal family.
In a video recording posted on Twitter, the Jordanian prince now under house arrest in his palace and monitored in particular by his communications said: “It is sure that I will not obey (the orders of the Chief of Staff) when he tells me that I am not allowed to go out, to tweet, to communicate with people and that I am only allowed to see my family ”.
“I recorded the whole conversation and distributed it (…) Now I’m waiting to see what will happen and what they will do. I don’t want to move because I don’t want to make the situation worse, ”added the 41-year-old prince, father of 4 children.
On Saturday, as the affair erupted shaking everyone, the Arab countries in particular, and sparking a huge outpouring of solidarity from the Arab monarchies, the Hashemite king decided “that a conversation must take place with the prince Hamza, in order to deal with the issue within the framework of the family, to dissuade him from continuing his activities, ”Jordanian Prime Minister Aymane Safadi told a press conference, adding that these actions carried out by the half-brother break with the traditions and values of the Hashemite family.
Thus, the Joint Chief of Staff, General Youssef Huneiti went to meet the prince to send him this message asking him “to stop all movements and activities aimed at the security and stability of Jordan”, affirmed the Jordanian Prime Minister, adding that Prince Hamza “treated this request in a negative manner without taking into consideration the interests of the country”.
Prince Hamza who was once crown prince (at the request of the former king Hussein, before the current king enthroned in 1999 designates his eldest son in 2004, editor’s note), announced on Saturday that he had been “under house arrest” in his palace in the Jordanian capital and denied having plotted to overthrow Jordanian power, accusing the Jordanian authorities of “corruption” and “incompetence”.
But the Jordanian authorities, because of a constant threat to the monarchical institution, have been trained to detect any threat and the involvement of Prince Hamza does not seem to be in doubt. In addition, the Jordanian Prime Minister indicated that this case did not date from today and that the security services had long followed the activities and movements of Prince Hamza bin Hussein and others of his relatives before concluding that the latter intended to undermine “the security and stability of the homeland”, and it was only when the accused began to speak of a “timetable” for action that the authorities decided to intervene .
Separately, Safadi revealed that Prince Hamza was helped by other parties, including two Jordanians, Bassem Awadallah and Cherif Hassan bin Zaid, who were arrested in connection with an investigation aimed at shedding light on this story. unprecedented in 100 years of Hashemite monarchy. The investigation has so far identified 16 people involved in this affair, all of them close to the prince.
The Jordanian Prime Minister also mentioned a foreign power involved in this affair to try to “undermine the security” of the state, without identifying it. “A person with links to foreign security services has been in contact with Prince Hamza’s wife and offered to provide her with a plane to leave Jordan for a foreign country,” added the head of government.
This announcement immediately provoked a reaction from an Israeli, Roy Shaposhnik, residing in Europe, presenting himself as only a friend of Prince Hamza ”, while Israel, through its Minister of Defense, Benny Gantz, officially defended the stability of the Kingdom, because instability at its borders would be very detrimental to Israel, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
In a statement, Roy Shaposhnik said he had never been “an agent of Israeli intelligence or any other country” and only offered to help, citing a “modest humanitarian gesture” by inviting the wife and children of the prince coming home to Europe.
