Jordan: Which Way Will It Go?

November 22, 2008

Martin McCauley writes: Jordan – the country, not the B-list celebrity former Page 3 model – does not appear often in the news, much to its relief. However, it is facing two formidable challenges: how to cope with the fallout from the war in Iraq and the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Half the population of Jordan consists of Palestinian refugees. The former King Hussein was a major player in the Arab-Israeli imbroglio. He sided with Western efforts to resolve the conflict and was astute enough not to turn the Arab world against him. In return, Washington poured in billions of dollars of aid. One consequence of that was that Jordanian security services were among the best in the region. King Hussein permitted Islamic radicals to remain in Jordan and plot the overthrow of...

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Category: Around The World
Tags: Al Qaeda, Jordan, King Abdullah, King Hussein