Jordan

Question of succession remains open 20 January 99 From Adel Darwish in Amman  Questions about the future of Jordan and the succession to the throne remained uncertain following comments made by King Hussein on CNN on Wednesday 20 January.  The King, in his first press interview since returning to a hero's welcome from a successful cancer treatment that lasted six months in the United States, broke with past practice and refused to confirm his younger brother, the 51 years old Crown Prince Hassan bin Talal, 51, as his automatic successor. The British educated monarch refused to tell Cable News Network whether he was planning to revise the 1965 constitutional change that named Prince Hassan as the next king. In fact the king referred to his younger brother as ' deputy' not a Crown Prince a day earlier. Looked uneasy when pinned down on the question of the succession, they king turned away before looking again at the camera and shook his head saying: "I am not prepared to say anything .So please do not commit me to anything whatsoever. I have always had to take the final decision. It is my responsibility, and I will come toit at an appropriate time."    The tone of the interview, increased speculation that King Hussein plans to name Prince Hamzah, 18, the eldest son by his fourth wife American born Queen Noor, as his successor. Queen Noor made sure the Prince accompanies his father to the US and remains by his bedside, bedside at the Mayo Clinic, Minnesota. Other members of the family have been putting pressure to make sure that the throne goes to a prince from an Arab, not American mother. But the way Queen Noor has been grooming Prince Hamzah, makes him much closer to the King than the other sons. Prince Hamzah is following his father's footsteps at Sandhurst, in Great Britain where the King went after attending Harrow. Prince Hamzah was singled out for mention by the King from his other children at the airport arrival ceremony because of the blood he provided for transfusions during the treatment. Royal watchers also took note that, during Tuesday's 15-mile drive through the crowded streets of Amman, Queen Noor rode next to her husband, in contrast to his 1992 homecoming from an earlier treatment, when he was accompanied by Crown Prince Hassan. Speaking in his palace overlooking the capital, the King said that he had made Hassan the Crown Prince with the agreement of their other brother, Prince Muhammad, because there was no alternative at the time. The naming of Prince Hassan, in 1965, as a crown prince followed assassination attempts against the King at a time when his natural successor, his first son, Abdullah, was only three years old. "It was I who canvassed for the alternative in our Constitution that enables a brother to take over," the King told CNN. "But that did not mean at all it was the end of the story there, and I think the Crown Prince has to work in the background to a very large extent." Many agree that the king wants to continue with the modernisation of his nation. "We are undergoing a significant liberalisation process that is seeing a decentralisation of power and decision-making and greater amounts of accountability, but it is very gradual and very slow," said Rami Khouri, former editor of the Jordan Times. "The monarchy is a powerful symbol of continuity. His [Hussein's] is not a one man show in the long run." King Hussein's gets a Hero's welcome  Queen Noor Backs campaign against '' Honour Killing''

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