Jordan Braces for the Death of Its Beloved King

With his family bidding him a tearful bedside farewell, Jordan’s King Hussein lay dying in a military hospital Friday, leaving a vacuum in Middle East leadership and a numb nation grief-stricken.

Hussein, 63, whose diplomatic aplomb and sheer energy made him a key player in the peace process, was being kept alive by life-support machinery, a palace official said. The family was agonizing over whether to disconnect the machines amid reports that the king had been declared clinically dead and that his internal organs, except for the heart, had failed.

A small group of people kept vigil in the rain outside the King Hussein Medical Center in Amman, the capital, and some even offered to donate their organs to save the king, while convoys of vehicles ushered royal relatives in to pay their final respects to one of the world’s longest-ruling monarchs.

Heir apparent Crown Prince Abdullah, Hussein’s eldest son, was said to be among those at the king’s deathbed, along with Queen Noor, the king’s American-born wife, although neither was seen in public. Hussein’s sister, Princess Basma, was seen crying as she left the hospital.

Throughout the day, Jordan was gripped in a death watch, waiting for official news, absorbing each rumor and worrying about the uncertain weeks ahead in a country that prides itself on providing stability in a violent region.

“The region is losing a moderating force,” said Leila Sharaf, a prominent Jordanian senator and close friend of the royal family. “He was a bigger presence than his small country warranted. He had a stature in the region bigger than Jordan and bigger than what one expects from Jordan. He was a force to be reckoned with.”

Sharaf wept as she spoke and clicked channels on her cable television to find the latest information. Like most Jordanians, she spent a tense, stressful day awaiting word that the king had passed away.

The past couple of weeks have been a roller coaster of events for generally tranquil Jordan. Hussein came home to his kingdom Jan. 19 after six months of cancer treatment in the United States, making a triumphant return as he piloted his plane for the television cameras. He declared that he was cured and then paraded through the streets of Amman.

One week later, he suffered a relapse and was forced to rush back to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota--after having abruptly fired his longtime designated heir, younger brother Hassan. He stunned the country by replacing Hassan, 51, with Abdullah, a 37-year-old career soldier with limited political experience.

Urgent medical treatment at Mayo that included another bone-marrow transplant failed, and Hussein raced against time to return to Jordan to die. In contrast to his January return, his arrival midday Friday was kept private, with television cameras catching only a glimpse of the landing aircraft.

The king was quickly transported to the hospital.

Throughout the day, Jordanian state television broadcast testimonials to the diminutive king, who transformed Jordan from an artificial creation of a state in the middle of the desert to a semi-modern country of strategic importance to the United States. Television images showed patriarchs of the Hashemite dynasty as they led the Arab Revolt and then followed Hussein from his ascension to the throne at age 17.

Newspapers, largely controlled by the state, called on Jordanians to pray for the king.

Friday is the Muslim holy day, so most stores and businesses were closed. Yet the crowds that normally would have been strolling through downtown or stopping in the cafes were missing. Many people stayed at home to await the news of their king’s death.

At Hadi Mohammed’s restaurant, where life-size posters of Hussein dressed in ceremonial white robes covered the walls, customers and waiters kept a close eye on the television set.

Mohammed, like many Jordanians, was sad but resigned.

“Even the prophet Muhammad had to die,” he said. The king is a direct descendant of Muhammad.

Faris Mustafa, a 30-year-old soldier, said everyone in his village outside Amman was in tears as they telephoned each other to share their grief.

“My father said he’d rather die than have to hear the news that King Hussein has died,” Mustafa said.

The majority of Jordan’s 4 million people have never known another monarch, and many speak of a personal bond with Hussein, even if they have never met him. Stories of Hussein’s generosity, of his giving money and trinkets to the poor, or donating a palace to orphans, are famous and part of the country’s folklore.

“It is like losing someone from your own family,” said Mohammed Shanti, 32, a plumber. “He was our father. Anyone who saw him could shake his hand, and he would not turn away. Anyone who needed something could go to the palace and ask.”

The Jordanians at Mohammed’s restaurant and elsewhere in the streets of Amman said they expect Abdullah to follow the path laid by his father.

“He’s just like his father,” Mohammed said. “The king’s offspring are a copy of him.”

Hussein’s skill at negotiating gracefully with enemies, such as Israel, will not be readily replicated, analysts here said.

Abdullah will have enormous shoes to fill, and many Jordanians worry that he will not be up to the task, at least initially.

Compared to Hussein, “Abdullah does not have the same stature, the same halo around him,” a veteran Jordanian politician said. “No one will listen to a 37-year-old the way they listened to a man with a 47-year tenure.”

Still, Jordanians can be expected to rally around Abdullah, especially because he so clearly has the support of the army and intelligence apparatus, as well as the U.S. government. In the short term, serious threats to Jordan’s stability do not appear on the horizon.

In the longer term, Jordan’s devastated economy, once largely dependent on trade with neighboring Iraq, may prove the greater destabilizer. Unemployment has been reported as high as 30%, and poverty is widespread and growing. Jordan is sustained by foreign financial aid.

Abdullah had clearly hoped to have a year or two as crown prince with his father as a mentor and teacher. In an interview Thursday, Abdullah repeatedly deferred to his father’s opinions and policies, speaking as if he expected the king to return to carry them forward.

World leaders, meanwhile, were saying their own farewells to the king.

“The sadness for your family is the sadness for all of us,” said former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres of the leftist Labor Party. “We hope and pray for stability and peace in Jordan and other places.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who hails from the opposite end of the political spectrum as Peres and whose relations with Hussein were sometimes frosty, praised the king as a champion of peace, noting that his death will leave “a gaping hole.”

Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi said he hopes that Jordan will reconsider its pro-U.S. stance once the king is gone.

“We hope that Jordan, under the leadership of a new generation, will radically rethink its policies and rejoin the ranks of the Arab world,” Kadafi said, according to Libya’s official Jana news agency.

For updates on King Hussein’s condition, check The Times’ Web site: https://www.latimes.com

* ASSURANCES OF CONTINUITY: Crown Prince Abdullah vows to maintain relations with “our friends the Israelis.” A14