Word: hassanal
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...potent combination of Hassan's missteps and Hussein's obsession with his legacy put Abdullah in charge. In 1992, as the King recuperated from his first bout with cancer, he returned home ready to abdicate. Buoyed by a hero's welcome and upset by a slanderous whispering campaign against his American-born wife Queen Noor, for which he held Hassan's court responsible, he changed his mind...
Family tensions rose further over Hussein's insistence that one of his sons be designated to succeed Hassan. He was furious when Hassan said the matter should wait until he became King, leaving the door open to name his son Rashid. Just before Hussein was found to have cancer again last year, the King signaled that he favored Hamzah, 18, the eldest son of Queen Noor, to become second in line...
Then, undergoing treatment in the U.S. for the past six months, Hussein was stung by reports of intrigue and ambition back home. Princess Sarvath, Hassan's wife, was moving furniture around the palace. The King also seemed to blame her, palace sources say, for more rumors smearing Noor, like the tale that Noor was a Jew, even a relative of the late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. "When my fever was getting high," Hussein later said, "some people thought it was their chance...
...final straw was what Hussein called Hassan's meddling in the Jordanian armed forces. In his dismissal letter, he disclosed that his brother had moved to fire Jordan's Chief of Staff on false corruption charges related to the construction of an opulent new home. Palace sources say that Hussein saw the move, at worst, as the beginning of a coup attempt...
...almost no one that he had returned home intending to replace his brother. His deteriorating health, says a friend, tipped the job to Abdullah over the unseasoned Hamzah, who might have been seen as his American mother's puppet. When Hussein broadcast hints of a change two weeks ago, Hassan dashed off a letter pleading his case, adding "I submit to your will." The King responded by sending the army chief to tell his brother he was no longer destined for the throne...