King Hussein Returns to U.S. for Treatment

Feverish and weak, King Hussein on Tuesday rushed back to the U.S. cancer clinic where he had spent much of the last six months undergoing chemotherapy, leaving Jordanians to worry about their monarch’s mortality.

The king’s sudden departure came just hours after he had formally anointed his eldest son, Prince Abdallah, as heir to the Hashemite throne. His absence put the 36-year-old army commander in charge of the monarchy on his very first day as crown prince.

Hussein left exactly one week after a jubilant homecoming, during which he paraded through the streets of Amman, the capital, in a cold rainstorm, and assured his people that he was completely recovered from the lymphoma that has ravaged his body.

His private physician, Lt. Gen. Samir Farraj, said the king was suffering from stubborn fevers and “low blood counts” and was returning to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota for medical tests to determine whether the malignant disease had recurred.

Fevers are often a sign of a relapse of lymphoma, said Dr. Christos Emmanoulides, director of clinical lymphoma research at UCLA’s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center. Such a relapse could also reduce the number of red blood cells the king is producing.

An alternative scenario, Emmanoulides noted, is that the king’s bone marrow was weakened by the chemotherapy and is taking a long time to recover fully, leaving him susceptible to infections. “This is the best-case scenario,” he said, because it would mean Hussein has not suffered a relapse.

The king’s exposure to the elements during his triumphal return parade probably had nothing to do with his current condition, Emmanoulides added. “They would not be bringing him back [to Mayo] if it’s just a cold.”

Abdallah, whose elevation to heir accompanied the acrimonious removal of the king’s brother, Hassan, was sworn in as regent, or temporary royal replacement, during a hasty airport ceremony Tuesday. Hussein was seen supporting himself with a cane.

Jordanians, already in shock over the demotion of the long-serving Prince Hassan, were stunned by the king’s sudden departure.

“We are very worried,” said Mahmoud Ghassan, a young office worker in downtown Amman, who, like many Jordanians, had already meshed his concern over the king’s fate with his confidence that Hussein will leave Jordan in good hands.

“The king is like a father,” Ghassan said. “We all knew Hassan and liked him. He was very intelligent. But Abdallah is strong, and he has the army.”

In a week of political and royal turmoil, Jordanians awoke Tuesday to the first full explanation of why Hussein had yanked Hassan out of the line of royal succession. Hassan had served as the designated heir for more than three decades.

Displaying a bluntness and direct anger rarely shown in public, Hussein chastised his younger brother for refusing to go along with long-term succession plans. Hussein made it clear that he wanted the line to the throne to revert to his own sons, but he said Hassan had resisted.

The complaints were contained in a 14-page letter from Hussein to Hassan that was published Tuesday, an unusually harsh dressing-down from the monarch to his onetime heir.

In veiled reference to Hassan’s reputedly ambitious wife and other aides around him, Hussein lashed out at “climbers” who “climb onto the branch to ruin the relation between brothers.”

“Their plan at this stage, together with those who want to destroy Jordan, was to instigate infighting in the ranks of the leadership,” he wrote. “They find in my being alive an impediment to all their designs.”

During his six-month medical treatment, Hussein apparently came to believe that Hassan and his associates had begun to behave as though the king was not going to live to return. He accused his brother of interfering with military matters, replacing ambassadors and reportedly even allowing his wife to renovate the palace kitchens to her taste.

The upheaval over the royal succession has raised fears here about Jordan’s vaunted stability in the volatile Middle East. The Jordanian army was put on alert in anticipation of possible backlash, but overt opposition seemed unlikely, especially because Abdallah’s military ties are strong.

Times staff writer Thomas H. Maugh II in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

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In this and some other stories, King Abdullah II of Jordan is referred to as Crown Prince Abdallah of Jordan.

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