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When at the beginning of July 2009 King Abdullah of Jordan announced through a decree the appointment as crown prince of his eldest son Hussein -then 15 years old-, the beautiful Dowager Queen Noor could only lick her wounds, aware that she had long since lost the game. The American, the last of the four women who came to have the charismatic King Hussein, and certainly the most media in the entire globe, saw how all the possibilities that her eldest son, Hamzah, would ever occupy the throne of the legendary Middle Eastern nation vanished. His ambitions had lost to those of the no less ambitious queen consort Rania. And yet, there would still be bizarre episodes in the Game of Thrones of the Hashemite Monarchy.

Next Thursday Amman will be the scene of the royal wedding of the year, that of Crown Prince Hussein – now 28 years old – with the architect born in Saudi Arabia Rajtwa Al Saif – the nationality of the bride is not overlooked either by any expert in the complex and turbulent waters of the region. Representatives of numerous families from around the world will attend the wedding as a logical endorsement of a Monarchy that has played for decades a key role in the stability of a poor country - nothing to do with the neighboring Petromonarchies - fundamental in the delicate balances of the Middle East. The groom's mother, Rania, is behind all the preparations.

The bride and groom will get married next Thursday in AmmanGTRES

Those who are not expected, however, in the great event are the Dowager Queen Noor or almost any of her children. The Hashemite dynasty broke completely that July 2009, although the internal problems already came from afar.

The remembered King Hussein died in February 1999, mourned by an endless list of world leaders. Before he died, he had left everything tied up and well tied to be succeeded on the throne by his eldest son, the current monarch Abdullah. This complied with the provisions of the Jordanian Constitution, which enshrines the succession from father to son - male - following the order of primogeniture. This is comparable to what happens in Western parliamentary monarchies. The problem is that the same Magna Carta gives the king of the day the possibility of naming "heir apparent" among other members of the dynasty, something very common in Arab royal families, in which the throne has tended to pass from one brother to another before jumping from generation. It was therefore speculated that Queen Noor tried to convince her husband to appoint their eldest son, Hamzah, as his successor.

True or not, what did happen is that Abdullah, already as king, appointed his half-brother Hamzah crown prince. Who knows if to fulfill his father's posthumous wish or as a strategy while he managed to secure the throne. Five years later, in 2004, Hamzah's wedding was celebrated in style, with all the pomp that corresponded to him as heir. Queen Sofia, the Infanta Cristina and the newlyweds Felipe and Letizia, who joined an extensive list of the Götha, did not miss that lavish wedding.

But, just five months later, Abdalá stabbed his half-brother and withdrew the title of heir, which remained vacant until in that aforementioned July 2009 he granted it to his firstborn, the now married.

What no one could imagine then is what would happen many years later, in 2021. Hamzah returned to the fore, when he was nothing less than arrested, accused of being the architect of a plot against the king. It was a serious operation, a real palace coup, in which more than a dozen people were arrested. Prince Hamzah publicly accused the current authorities of corruption and misrule. From her golden retirement in the United States, Queen Dowager Noor launched messages in favor of her son that involved veiled accusations against her stepson. Hamzah was soon forced to publicly apologize to the monarch. It was an unbelievable attempt by the Palace to end the crisis. But, weeks later, the former heir issued a statement to make public his renunciation of his title of prince, explaining that his "personal convictions" are not in tune with "modern methods" of Jordanian institutions.

It was an aunt of King Abdullah, Princess Firyal, who went off the tongue with a message on social media – which she deleted too late – in which she accused Noor herself of being behind the coup against the sovereign.

Neither Queen Noor, nor of course her son Hamzah, nor her two daughters, Princesses Imam and Raiyah, participate in any of the acts of the Hashemite Court. Only his son Prince Hashim maintains his palatial presence. His wife, without going any further, was one of the guests at the henna party that days ago organized Queen Rania in honor of her daughter-in-law. And, as everything is observed with a magnifying glass in this Game of Thrones, it should be noted that Hashim's wife was the only one of the many princesses present who did wear a veil covering her head.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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