Coup attempt in Jordan

[Nefertiti2]

https://twitter.com/LinaKhatibUK/status/1378410500392898566?s=20

Saudis said to be involved....

[ursus arctos]

Unsurprisingly, Hamzah has a rather different view

https://twitter.com/bbclysedoucet/status/1378458404604289027

[Antepli Ejderha]

This doesn't make any sense to my rather limited knowledge of Jordan.

[Nefertiti2]

from that BBC report

In the video, passed to the BBC, he describes a country gripped by fear where anyone who criticises the government risks arrest by the secret police.

The oldest son of the late King Hussein and his favourite wife Queen Noor, Prince Hamzah is a graduate of the UK's Harrow School and Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst

Francis Rolleston Gardner OBE TD VR FRGS (born 31 July 1961) is a British journalist and author. He is currently the BBC's Security Correspondent. His parents were both diplomats and his early life was spent in The Hague before being educated at Saint Ronan's School, and Marlborough College. He was commissioned into the British Army Reserves as a second lieutenant joining the 4th Volunteer Battalion, the Royal Green Jackets in September 1984.

[MsD]

From your gossip correspondent: 20 years ago I worked with a Jordanian Royal Family member at a boutique investment bank in London. She was a junior banker. Every time she went home to visit, she stocked up on black hair dye from Boots to take the family. All I know about that family is that they got through an absolute fuckload of black hair dye.

They must order it online by now.

[Lang Spoon]

from that BBC report



Francis Rolleston Gardner OBE TD VR FRGS (born 31 July 1961) is a British journalist and author. He is currently the BBC's Security Correspondent. His parents were both diplomats and his early life was spent in The Hague before being educated at Saint Ronan's School, and Marlborough College. He was commissioned into the British Army Reserves as a second lieutenant joining the 4th Volunteer Battalion, the Royal Green Jackets in September 1984.

Come come, you wouldn't be suggesting this independent journalist had a second job?

[steveeeeeeeee]

I spent 5 days in Amman on a training course in 2012. There were pockets of protest against corruption then. There was a general hatred of the civil service by taxi divers, I had the same conversation with 2 of them who claimed they were lazy and corrupt. It was also the only place I've travelled to where immigration officials tried to steal/confiscate my belongings. Shittiest airport for a capital city I've been to, but I stayed in a nice hotel with an amazing breakfast buffet.

Overall, I didn't like it much, mainly due to it being quite a miserable place.

[Lang Spoon]

To be fair, taxi drivers everywhere hate civil servants.

[Gangster Octopus]

As do taxi divers...

[ursus arctos]

More on the "Saudi ties" of one of those arrested. It would be hard for them to be tighter

https://twitter.com/jabrimd/status/1378455829960085508

[Duncan Gardner]

More Gardners in Jordanian politics

My parents worked at the Amman Embassy in the 70s. As kids we hung out at the Intercontinental Hotel swimming pool. Where the Da introduced me to his buddy Walter 'the Colonel' Gardner. He was King Hussein's sometime father in law (and so Abdullah's granda). Abdullah and Hamzah are half brothers.

Walter was a surly fucker. More generally, even at 14 I could see something rotten. The country was and probably still is an effective one party state fawned over in Britain because their royals went to Sandhurst and married nice girls from the Home Counties

That MBS dude gives me a Philly soul earworm. MFSB, TSOP

[steveeeeeeeee]

The Intercontinental was the hotel I stayed at with the fantastic breakfast buffet.

The British ambassador to Egypt had previously been ambassador to Jordan, and he didn't speak so highly of it due to the dominance of tribal culture, which basically put the breaks on most goodwill iniatives and projects.

Basically, I never heard many positives about it when I was in the Middle East. Lacked the glamour and freedom of Lebanon, didn't have the culture, food and warmth of Syria. Petra was meant to be a bit special, though. I regret not finding the time to visit.

[ad hoc]

"Streets of Philadelphia" earworm

I was in Amman very briefly. One night but I have no recollection of where I stayed. Amman seemed like a sprawling dusty mess, though as I'd come from the West Bank it was nice to walk around and not worry about seeing the IDF show up. It was on the flight from Amman to Heathrow that I met John Simpson who'd just been slightly injured when the convoy he was in got bombed in Iraq.

[Antepli Ejderha]

More Gardners in Jordanian politics

My parents worked at the Amman Embassy in the 70s. As kids we hung out at the Intercontinental Hotel swimming pool. Where the Da introduced me to his buddy Walter 'the Colonel' Gardner. He was King Hussein's sometime father in law (and so Abdullah's granda). Abdullah and Hamzah are half brothers.

Walter was a surly fucker. More generally, even at 14 I could see something rotten. The country was and probably still is an effective one party state fawned over in Britain because their royals went to Sandhurst and married nice girls from the Home Counties

That MBS dude gives me a Philly soul earworm. MFSB, TSOP

Other dictators are ophthalmologists and marry nice girls from west London.

[Antepli Ejderha]

Thanks for all the links shared. It's becoming a little clearer to me now. Saudi Arabia being involved is deeply worrying for not only Jordan but also the region.

[Nefertiti2]

The Jordanian regime is im sure corrupt incompetent and ruthless against opponents.

irs also pro west and pro Israel. It could be very complicated indeed if there were to be regime change of any kind

[G-Man]

Jordan is less pro-Israel by desire than by force. The collaborators with Israel are the Saudis. The political repression is not on Assad or Saudi levels, the country is generally stable, women are politically freer than in most Middle Eastern countries, and minorities are protected. And the extent to which Jordan has taken in refugees from Iraq and Syria is astonishing.

My Palestinian friends generally prefer the Abdullah monarchy over all plausible alternatives.