Doctors Confirm Jordan’s Fear: King’s Cancer Is Back

Doctors for King Hussein confirmed Wednesday what many people here already suspected: The Jordanian monarch’s debilitating cancer has returned.

As the desert kingdom began to prepare for the death of the only monarch most Jordanians have known, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright announced that she will pay a visit to Amman today to recognize Hussein’s designated heir.

Hussein, who just last week came home to Jordan after six months of cancer treatment in the United States, appointed his eldest son, Abdallah, as his successor early Tuesday, replacing the king’s brother, Hassan, who had held the position for more than three decades.

The succession changes were made with an air of urgency before Hussein rushed back later Tuesday to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. On Wednesday, his personal physician and a team of Mayo doctors announced that the 63-year-old monarch had suffered a relapse of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

“His majesty is in stable condition,” said the statement, attributed to Lt. Gen. Samir Farraj, royal physician, and the Mayo doctors and read on Jordanian state television Wednesday night. Reports on television suggested that the king might undergo another bone-marrow transplant, his second in his long and draining therapy.

“He is receiving treatment for a relapse of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma,” the statement said. “His majesty immediately began receiving treatment upon arriving at Mayo Clinic on Jan. 26, 1999.”

A few hours earlier in Amman, Crown Prince Abdallah, the next king of Jordan, received hundreds of well-wishers in a ceremony meant to consolidate his role. The 36-year-old career army officer shook the hands of Bedouin tribesmen, senators, priests and muftis who filed through the throne room of Raghadan Palace to greet him.

Abdallah, a stocky, broad-faced man with a ready smile and easy manner, has before him the formidable task of earning Jordanians’ trust and establishing his credentials with an international audience and a public shattered by the last week’s events.

In a last-minute change of schedule, State Department spokesman James P. Rubin announced Wednesday that Albright will stop off today in Amman on the way from Saudi Arabia to Europe to meet the new crown prince.

Rubin said Albright decided to pay her first official visit to Abdallah after State Department officials talked by telephone with Hussein’s aides in Minnesota.

“She will express our friendship for [Abdallah] and the Jordanian people and consult with him on bilateral relations and regional issues,” Rubin said.

The abrupt deterioration in Hussein’s health made many here suspect that the king, who has ruled Jordan for nearly 47 years, had returned home prematurely, evidently to settle family matters, resolve a bitter family feud and guarantee that one of his sons assumes the throne after his death.

Jordanians were traumatized to watch the television footage of Hussein’s departure from the Amman airport Tuesday. He used a cane to support himself. His fourth and current wife, the American-born Queen Noor, clearly had been crying, her reddened eyes visible when she removed dark sunglasses to bid farewell to heir apparent Abdallah.

In the tradition of hiding or obscuring issues of royal health, the palace insisted that Hussein’s new troubles came about from his decision to ride exposed through a cold rain in a long homecoming parade. In fact, Hussein was reportedly ailing when he returned Jan. 19.

Two days later, he was rushed to a military hospital in Amman to receive blood transfusions. Emergency treatment continued for two days until doctors persuaded the king to return to the Mayo Clinic.

Times staff writer Norman Kempster in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, 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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