PRINCE HAMZAH WORKED WITH “FOREIGN ENTITIES” TO DESTABILISE THE STATE: DEPUTY PM SAFADI

Mon 05 April 2021:

Jordanian Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Ayman Safadi said on Sunday that an investigation found Prince Hamzah bin Hussein’s and two officials had held contacts with foreign intelligence agencies to destabilize the country.

“The investigations had monitored interferences and communications with foreign parties over the right timing to destabilise Jordan,” Deputy Prime Minister Ayman Safadi said on Sunday.

These included a foreign intelligence agency contacting Prince Hamzah’s wife to organise a plane for the couple to leave Jordan, he said.

“Initial investigations showed these activities and movements had reached a stage that directly affected the security and stability of the country, but his majesty decided it was best to talk directly to Prince Hamzah, to deal with it within the family to prevent it from being exploited,” he said.

Efforts were under way to resolve the crisis within the royal family, but Prince Hamzah was not cooperative, he added. “It’s a break from the traditions and values of the Hashemite family,” Safadi said.

The foreign minister went on to say that the royal had held contacts with unnamed foreign intelligence and was seeking to depose the current King Abdullah II.

“The investigations found foreign interference and contacts including contacts with foreign parties around the best timing to begin taking steps to undermine the security of our Jordan,” Safadi added.

Responding to the fallout on Sunday, Safadi said Prince Hamzah had used the videos to distort facts and incite empathy, according to the state news agency, Petra.

He told a news conference that the prince had been liaising with foreign parties about destabilising the country and had been being monitored for some time.

The prince is accused of seeking to mobilise “clan leaders” against the government.

But the plot had been “nipped in the bud”, Petra quoted the deputy PM as saying.

Safadi went on to allege that a man with links to foreign security services had offered Prince Hamzah’s wife, Princess Basmah, a flight out of Jordan. He did not specify which foreign security service was apparently involved.

Safadi said the security services have asked for those involved in the plot be referred to the state security court. He said some 14-16 people were under arrest.

On Saturday, state media reported that several high-ranking officials were arrested for security reasons in Jordan. In a video message, Hamzah bin Hussein, half-brother of King Abdullah II, said that he had been placed under house arrest and cut off from communication.

The armed forces deny that the prince was arrested, noting that he was told to cease “movements and activities that are used to target” the security and stability of Jordan.

Jordan’s state-run press warned on Sunday against attempts to harm the “security and stability” of the kingdom.

In a front-page editorial, official newspaper al-Rai said, “Yesterday’s security operation is an expression of a red line that must not be crossed or even approached, and which is linked to the supreme interests of the kingdom, its security and stability.”

“Some people are trying to create the illusion of an attempted coup in Jordan, and trying to implicate Prince Hamzah in their sick fantasies,” it continued. “All that happened was that some of the prince’s actions were used to target Jordan’s security and stability.”

Pro-government newspaper Ad-Dustour did not publish an editorial about Saturday’s events, but carried official statements and reported “moves to target Jordan’s security” had been “thwarted”.

Saturday’s security sweep came as Jordan prepares to mark 100 years since the new kingdom, then named Transjordan, was established alongside Palestine under British mandate. It declared independence in 1946.

But Barah Mikail, an academic at Saint Louis University Madrid and director of consulting firm Stractegia, said the country “would come off well in the face of a plot hatched against it, particularly as the kingdom’s anniversary approaches”.

Jordan “is very well structured in terms of intelligence and national networks, and tight control, in particular of individuals suspected of being able to harm the monarchy, is a fact”, he said.