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The wound is still deep : Jordan s royal feud is calmer, but not over
King Abdullah (front, right) and Prince Hamzah (rear, center) at a ceremony last month celebrating the 100th anniversary of Jordan s founding. Photo: Jordanian Royal Council handout via Getty
Amman, Jordan A month after the royal family feud that rocked Jordan, internal tensions have softened but the long-term effects of the crisis are yet to be seen.
Driving the news: In the last two weeks, 16 of the 18 Jordanians arrested in the crackdown on former Crown Prince Hamzah bin Hussein and his associates have been released. Prince Hamzah was publicly accused in April of plotting to destabilize the kingdom.
Prince Hamzah at Sandhurst in 1999
A month after Jordan’s ruler announced an apparent coup plot had been “nipped in the bud,” King Abdullah II felt comfortable enough with the situation at home to make his first trip abroad this week, travelling to Brussels for meetings with Nato and European Union leaders.
But while the royal famed for his love of travel was away, Jordanians at home were asking after his younger half-brother in a coordinated online campaign demanding to know #Where is Prince Hamzah.
Prince Hamzah, 41, has not been seen in public since a televised appearance alongside the king to mark Jordan’s centenary on April 11, an event apparently choreographed to demonstrate the mending of an unprecedented royal rift that unfolded days earlier.