Hussein Accepts Resignation of Prime Minister

King Hussein accepted the resignation of Prime Minister Zaid Rifai today after rioting over price increases, an informed source reported.

The source, speaking on condition of anonymity, gave no details, and there was no official announcement. Earlier in the day, officials reported that the Harvard-educated Rifai, prime minister since 1985, had offered his resignation.

Crown Prince Hassan was quoted Sunday as telling a Saudi Arabian newspaper that last week’s riots would not force a change.

Riots Began Tuesday

“Government changes are first and foremost a decision of King Hussein and dictated by constitutional legitimacy, and cannot take place because of demagoguery or pressures exerted on us,” the newspaper Al Sharq al Awsat quoted the prince as saying.

The four days of riots, in which at least eight people died, began Tuesday in the southern city of Maan and spread to dozens of cities and villages throughout the kingdom.

Rifai has been widely blamed for falling living standards in Jordan. The annual per capita income has slumped from about $2,000 in the mid-1980s to about $1,200.

The government last year imposed import controls and austerity measures to help deal with mounting payments on a $6-billion debt.

Rifai, 52, was a boyhood friend of King Hussein who became one of his most trusted advisers. No Jordanian prime minister served longer than Rifai. Besides the term that began in April, 1985, he also was prime minister from 1973 to 1976.

Educated at Columbia and Harvard universities, Rifai earlier served as ambassador to Britain and as chief of the royal court.