A Royal Crisis in the Kingdom of Jordan
The Lawfare Podcast
The Lawfare Institute
4.7 • 6.4K Ratings
🗓️ 7 April 2021
⏱️ 55 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This past weekend, an exceptional series of events rocked the normally quiet nation of Jordan as an apparent schism between members of the country's royal family led to the detention of the country's former crown prince, Prince Hamzeh, and the arrest of several of his associates on allegations that they were undermining the country's national security—potentially in coordination with certain foreign interests. Hamzeh responded with a series of leaked videos in both Arabic and English, accusing the government led by King Abdullah II of ineffectiveness and corruption, dragging the royal family's internal tensions even further into the light of day.
To talk through this unexpected crisis, Scott R. Anderson sat down with Bessma Momani of the University of Waterloo and Ghaith al-Omari of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. They discussed the history of royal succession in Jordan, how this latest crisis maps onto Jordan's changing political dynamics and what it all might mean for the broader region.
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Transcript
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| 0:25.6 | no bull and the aftermath. |
| 0:34.0 | One of the things that poked a hole in the entire argument of this so-called foreign plot, |
| 0:39.3 | and of course bringing an Aadala to this situation, is that in many ways Prince Hamza's support |
| 0:45.0 | from the East Bank is very much fearful of diluting their power and influence. |
| 0:51.0 | So under no circumstance, with someone like Hamza and the East Banker coup plotters that |
| 0:57.0 | are put in jail, right? |
| 0:59.1 | In any way, want to sign something akin to the deal of the century that everybody keeps |
| 1:04.4 | kind of floating around as the potential reason that Hamza is colluding with these foreign |
| 1:09.2 | elements. |
| 1:10.2 | That does not make sense. |
| 1:11.2 | The East Bankers who have almost exclusive control of the Army and the Intelligence |
| 1:15.5 | Service are not about to sign a deal with the Israelis and the Saudis and the Emirates |
| 1:20.8 | to what? |
| 1:21.8 | To have more Palestinians come to Jordan and therefore dilute their power and their influence |
| 1:26.8 | over these services even further? |
| 1:28.8 | That doesn't make sense. |
| 1:31.2 | I'm Scott Aranterson and this is the LawFair podcast for April 7, 2021. |
| 1:37.3 | This past weekend, an exceptional series of events rocked the normally quiet nation of |
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