Jordan’s former Crown Prince was asked to “stop some movements and activities,” the country’s top general said on Saturday, as other members of the royal family were arrested in a sweep believed to have thwarted a plot. against King Abdullah II of the country.
General Yousef Huneiti, the army’s chief of staff, denied reports that Prince Hamzah bin Hussein, the king’s 41-year-old brother, had been arrested along with about 20 people taken for “security reasons”.
However, the prince was asked to stay at his Amman palace and not use social media.
Huneti said an investigation is still ongoing and its results will be made public “in a transparent and clear manner.”
Among those arrested were Sharif Hassan Ben Zaid, a member of the royal family, and Bassem Awadallah, a longtime trusted man of the king, served as minister of planning and finance.
“No one is above the law and Jordan’s security and stability are above everything,” Huneiti told the official Petra news agency.
Details of the plot are scarce, but arrests of top officials and members of the royal family are rare in Jordan, a key U.S. ally between Israel, the Palestinian territories, Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia.
About 3,000 troops are stationed at Muwaffaq Salti Air Base, a major staging area for the fight against ISIS. The U.S. provides approximately $ 425 million in military aid to Jordan each year.
Awadallah, who resigned as head of the royal court in 2008, was a key player in economic reforms.
Jordan’s powerful intelligence agency has a widespread influence in public life, with this role growing over the past year amid emergency laws created at the start of the coronavirus pandemic. Civic groups say these powers violate civil and political rights.
With mail cables