In statement read by newscasters across #Jordan simultaneously, King Abdullah discussed recent events as efforts to “undermine the homeland.”
Adds “it was most painful for me because the sides of sedition came from within and outside our one house.”
[NOT OFFICIAL TRANSLATION]
King Abdullah highlights his decision to deal the issue in line with "Jordanian values" and "Hashemite legacy."
Adds next steps will be governed by the "interests of the homeland and our people"
#Jordan King Abdullah ends message by noting the hardships the country and citizens are facing, challenges "exacerbated by the Coronavirus pandemic," noting we are aware of the weight of/heavy difficulties our citizens face.
[NOT OFFICIAL TRANSLATION]
King Abdullah adds Prince Hamza is in his palace with his family, "in my care"
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With everything going on in #Jordan right now, this to me is just as big of a scandal
#Jordan#COVID19 taskforce member reportedly admits to press that Pfizer has cancelled its contract for 2 million vaccine doses to #Jordan due to late payments
*If* true, this is the type of mismanagement and poor government administration that has #Jordan-ians furious.
Should businesses and families suffer many more months of partial-lockdowns when the govt blew an opportunity to secure vaccines for 10-15% of population?
And this is an issue- government failures on the #COVID19 file- that is much more of an immediate concern to every-day #Jordan-ians than the last few days of events.
I love it how veteran American journalists are now re-discovering #Jordan after a decades-long absence and writing as if it is still 1980, 1991 or 1999.
It highlights a deep lack of understanding of how the #Jordan has evolved under the reign of King Abdullah.
No, East Bank tribes are no longer a monolith and neither are its leaders. A new political-economic elite have risen. Even balance of power in old institutions has shifted
People seem to also missing the point that the #Jordan opposition has been politically decimated or coopted.
There are no real political actors on the ground. Even social actors such as tribes have been divided (many say, on purpose by the state).
I can say that measures such as court-ordered media blackouts and vague application of anti-terror & cybercrime laws, although intended for domestic media /audience, have made #Jordan *the most* difficult country for me to report from in the region
That's after 14 years here
And I say "most difficult" because the red-lines are constantly moving, the goalposts shifting, topics that are permissible today are suddenly forbidden tomorrow.
Sources are afraid old social media posts, brought to light because of an interview today, may land them in court.
It encourages "self-censorship" even on foreign news outlets based in #Jordan, particularly among #Jordan-ian employees for foreign outlets
Problem is, with the shifting red-lines, people give into full self-censorship and everyone starts to sound like like a state news agency.
#Jordan Prince Hamzah: military chief "informed me that I was not allowed to go out, to communicate with people or to meet with them because in the meetings that I had been present in....there had been criticism of the government or the king"
#Jordan Prince Hamzah claims (confirms?) his staff have been arrested, he and his family have been placed under house arrest in the Al-Salaam Palace outside Amman, in video to the BBC.
This is absolutely unprecedented, unparalleled, and perhaps just the start of a deeper crisis
#Jordan royal family have a history of banding together when times are tough. Dissent is present but never public.
To have a former crown prince, son of King Hussein directly call out the leadership and the palace is a previously unthinkable escalation.
#Jordan authorities arrested Sharif Hassen bin Zaid, former royal court chief/economic power-broker Bassem Awadallah and “others” for security reasons in dramatic raids across the capital- and in news, taken down, a senior prince and his staff
According to reports and claims by relatives of staff, that senior prince is former #Jordan Crown Prince Hamzah- who some claim is currently under house arrest.
The widespread arrests were dramatic in the amount of military, police and mukhabarat forces and house raids.
*If* true, a senior royal detained or interrogated is unprecedented in modern #Jorodan, or really in any of #Jordan history.
Royal family is known for sticking together in tough times.
1/ Outside of core supporters, few in the #Arab world will shed tears over the death of Qassem Soleimani, who in their view went from a hero of resistance to Israel to mastermind of ethno-sectarian cleansing + decade-long campaign of weakening, isolating, butchering Sunni Muslims
2/Soleimani had emerged, in many people’s minds, as both the mastermind and symbol of Iran’s alleged hegemonic ambitions in the #Arab world and the leader of yet another foreign occupation force on Arab lands. #QassemSoleimani#Iran
3/ Seeing the Iranian Soleimani appear in Damascus, on the frontlines in #Syria, #Iraq, and at the heart of #Baghdad, was a constant reminder of the decline of not only Syrian and Iraqi regional influence and national sovereignty- but the defeat of #Arab nationalism itself