Jordan accused former Crown Prince Hamza bin Hussein over the weekend of allegedly conspiring with “foreign parties” to “destabilize” the country.
In an unusual example of palace drama for the relatively stable monarchy, Hamza issued a video statement through his lawyer in which he said he was under house arrest and has been ordered not to communicate with the outside world, an order he said he would not obey.
41-year-old Hamza, the oldest son of the late King Hussein and younger half-brother to current ruler King Abdullah II, was named Crown Prince of Jordan in 1999. It was widely understood at the time that King Hussein favored Hamza, but he was too young to assume control at the time of his father’s death, so he was formally designated next-in-line. This was a great disappointment to his mother Queen Noor, the king’s fourth wife and reportedly his favorite,
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