SALT, Jordan – After a government hospital ran out of oxygen last month and nine Covid-19 patients died, the country’s monarch, King Abdullah II, paid a brief visit to the small farming town. Dressed in a military uniform, he reprimanded local officials in front of TV cameras.
Earlier, an angry crowd had pounded their fists and shoes on a vehicle carrying a court official, forcing him to accelerate.
The next day, Salt hosted a royal visit very different from the king’s stepbrother, Prince Hamzah bin Hussein. The prince, a critic of the king and his government, called the deceased’s houses and sat and talked with their families. Two weeks later, he was invited back to a traditional holiday with the locals.
The duel visits – as Jordan struggled to control the pandemic and solve a pocket economy – proved to be one of the last sparks in a long-running rivalry between the king and his younger stepfather, according to people on both sides. , in a nation that is an important ally of the United States.
Within days, Prince Hamzah was effectively placed under house arrest and accused by the government of undermining national security, a move that overturned politics in the desert kingdom between Israel and the occupied West Bank, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Syria. He has not been seen in public since. The palace says that the prince stays at home “in the care” of the king.