Abdul-Monem Rifai; Former Jordan Prime Minister, 68, Dies

Former Prime Minister Abdul-Monem Rifai, a soft-spoken diplomat who became a key figure in improving Jordanian-Syrian relations in the mid-1970s, died Thursday of a heart attack, the Jordanian news agency PETRA announced.

Rifai, 68, had twice served as prime minister and was the uncle of Prime Minister Zaid al-Rifai.

Rifai, who composed traditional Arab poetry as a pastime, was born in 1917 in Tyre, Lebanon, and attended the American University of Beirut. His public career began in 1938 when he became private secretary to King Hussein’s grandfather, King Abdullah. He served Jordan over the years as foreign minister, ambassador to the United States, Britain, Egypt, Lebanon and the Arab League and as deputy prime minister and chief United Nations delegate.

He was prime minister in 1969 and again in 1970, when Hussein named him to head a government aimed at reconciling Jordan with the Palestine Liberation Organization. Rifai was replaced in August of that year, a month before Hussein’s crackdown on the Palestinian guerrillas in which the Palestinians were so badly defeated that their supporters later referred to the period as “Black September.”

In 1973, he served as Hussein’s personal representative in negotiations that led to re-establishment of diplomatic relations with Syria. Those relations soured when the two countries disagreed over then-Egyptian President Anwar Sadat’s 1977 visit to Jerusalem, which Syria vehemently opposed.