Lion of Jordan (116 page)

Read Lion of Jordan Online

Authors: Avi Shlaim

BOOK: Lion of Jordan
4.91Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub

5
. Interview with Richard Viets.

6
. Raad Alkadiri, ‘Strategy and Tactics in Jordanian Foreign Policy 1967–1988' (unpublished D.Phil. thesis, University of Oxford, 1995), 194–5.

7
. Shultz,
Turmoil and Triumph,
1,025–7.

8
. Adnan Abu-Odeh,
Jordanians, Palestinians, and the Hashemite Kingdom in the Middle East Peace Process
(Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace Press, 1999), 224–5.

9
. Interview with Adnan Abu-Odeh.

10
. Ibid.

11
. Interview with Taher al-Masri.

12
. Asher Susser,
In through the Out Door: Jordan's Disengagement and the Middle East Peace Process
(Washington, DC: Washington Institute for Near East Policy, 1990), 13.

13
. Shultz,
Turmoil and Triumph,
1,030–31.

14
.
Jordan Times,
9 April 1988.

15
. Shimon Peres to King Hussein, 26 July 1988, ‘The Private Papers of Moshe Zak', Ramat Aviv.

16
. King Hussein to Shimon Peres, 27 July 1988, ibid.

17
. Interview with Adnan Abu-Odeh.

18
. Interview with King Hussein bin Talal.

19
. Address by King Hussein on Jordan's Disengagement from the West Bank, 31 July 1988, in
The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: A Documentary Record 1967–1990
, ed. Yehuda Lukacs (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992), 520–25.

20
. Queen Noor,
Leap of Faith: Memoirs of an Unexpected Life
(London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 2003), 280.

21
. Interview with Dr Taher Kanaan.

22
. Interview with Taher al-Masri.

23
. Shultz,
Turmoil and Triumph
, 1,033.

24
. Schiff and Yaari,
Intifada,
271–2.

25
. Susser,
In through the Out Door,
37.

26
. Adiba Mango, ‘Jordan on the Road to Peace 1988–1999' (unpublished D.Phil. thesis, University of Oxford, 2002), 45.

27
. Philip Robins,
A History of Jordan
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 177.

28
. Interview with Ali Shukri.

29
. Laurie A. Brand,
Jordan's Inter-Arab Relations: The Political Economy of Alliance Making
(New York: Columbia University Press, 1994), 95.

30
. Interviews with Ali Shukri, Prince Talal bin Muhammad and Prince Raad bin Zaid.

31
. Philip Geyelin, draft of ‘Chapter 1: 1988/1989: The Bush Connection', unfinished book manuscript, Box 27, ‘The Papers of Philip Geyelin', Middle East Centre Archive, St Antony's College, Oxford.

32
. Personal memorandum from King Hussein to President Bush, February 1989, Box 13, ibid.

33
. Interview with Marwan Kasim.

34
. Interview with Prince El Hassan bin Talal.

35
. Mango, ‘Jordan on the Road to Peace 1988–1999', 45–53.

36
. Interview with Marwan Kasim.

37
. Interview with Samir Mutawi.

38
. Interview with Prince Raad bin Zaid.

39
. Interview with Sharif Zaid bin Shaker.

40
. Robins,
A History of Jordan,
101.

41
. Noor,
Leap of Faith,
296.

42
. Robins,
A History of Jordan,
174.

43
. Interview with Prince Raad bin Zaid.

Chapter 23: The Gulf Crisis and War

1
. Government of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, White Paper,
Jordan and the Gulf Crisis: August 1990-March 1991
(Amman: August 1991), 4.

2
. Interview with Ihsan Shurdom.

3
. George Bush and Brent Scowcroft,
A World Transformed,
1st ed. (New York: Vintage, 1998), 318.

4
. Jordan, White Paper, 4–5.

5
. Bush and Scowcroft,
A World Transformed,
319.

6
. Interview with Wesley Egan. Egan served in the American Embassy in Cairo during the Gulf crisis.

7
. James A. Baker III,
The Politics of Diplomacy: Revolution, War and Peace 19
S
9–1992
(New York: Putnam's, 1995), 290.

8
. Queen Noor,
Leap of Faith: Memoirs of an Unexpected Life
(London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 2003), 307–8.

9
.
Washington Post
, 15 August 1990.

10
. Mohamed Heikal,
Illusions of Triumph: An Arab View of the Gulf War
(London: Fontana, 1992), 273–5.

11
. J. O'C [Jack O'Connell], ‘The Persian Gulf Crisis', Box 17, ‘The Papers of Philip Geyelin', Middle East Centre Archive, St Antony's College, Oxford. Jack O'Connell was the CIA station chief in Amman from 1967 to 1971, and, after retiring from government service in 1972, an adviser and representative of the Jordanian government in Washington.

12
. Heikal,
Illusions of Triumph
, 288.

13
. Noor,
Leap of Faith
, 310.

14
. Lawrence Tal, ‘Jordan' in
The Cold War and the Middle East
, eds. Yezid Sayigh and Avi Shlaim (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997), 121.

15
. Interviews with Christopher Prentice and Sir Mark Allen. Christopher Prentice was Britain's ambassador to Jordan 2002–6. Mark Allen was counsellor (political) at the British Embassy in Amman 1990–94.

16
. According to one friend, a wealthy Arab businessman, Hussein deeply yearned for the restoration of the Hashemite monarchy in Iraq. The friend was Hany Salaam, the father-in-law of Prince Talal bin Muhammad, Hussein's favourite nephew and national security adviser. Talal was married to Ghida, and both were close to Hussein and to Queen Noor. According to Salaam, Hussein and Saddam were very close, and Hussein hoped to become the dominant figure in the relationship. A long-term ambition that Hussein very rarely talked about was to regain Iraq for the Hashemite dynasty. He also had a candidate in mind for the Iraqi throne: Talal bin Muhammad, although Hussein did not broach the subject with Talal. Salaam further relates that Hussein was not altogether surprised by Saddam's invasion of Kuwait. Hussein thought he could deter Saddam from resorting to force, but he overestimated his influence over him. Even after the invasion, Hussein continued to think that the Americans would not act and that Saddam would be the winner in the end. Hussein thought that Iraq would emerge from the conflict as the dominant power in the Gulf and that Jordan would benefit from the change in the regional balance of power. This is why he did not break with Saddam in the early phase of the crisis. Salaam himself considered all these ideas to be unrealistic. But he had no doubt that Hussein was serious about his secret agenda of preparing the ground for a Jordanian takeover of Iraq. Conversation with Hany Salaam, London, 26 November 2002. I have no firm evidence either to confirm or to contradict this account of what went on in Hussein's mind during the Gulf conflict. I simply report it here for what it is worth.

17
. Interview with Prince El Hassan bin Talal. In retrospect, Prince Hassan rather wished that his brother had sacked him over this policy issue then and there and spared him the hurt and humiliation of the final dismissal as crown prince.

18
. Jordan, White Paper, 6.

19
. Heikal,
Illusions of Triumph
, 291.

20
. Bush and Scowcroft,
A World Transformed
, 348–9.

21
. Interview with Sharif Zaid bin Shaker.

22
. Bush and Scowcroft,
A World Transformed
, 340, 347–8.

23
. Heikal,
Illusions of Triumph
, 320.

24
. Adiba Mango, ‘Jordan on the Road to Peace 1988–1999' (unpublished D.Phil. thesis, University of Oxford, 2002), 68–9.

25
. ‘Documents from PLG's trip to Jordan in January 1991', ‘The Papers of Philip Geyelin'.

26
. Interview with Sir Roger Tomkys.

27
. Heikal,
Illusions of Triumph
, 321.

28
. Interview with Adnam Abu-Odeh. Of course Queen Victoria would have treated an Indian maharaja with exemplary courtesy.

29
. Efraim Halevy,
Man in the Shadows: Inside the Middle East Crisis with the Man Who Led the Mossad
(London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 2006), 27.

30
. Ibid., 27–8.

31
. Noor,
Leap of Faith,
312–13.

32
. Jordan, White Paper.

33
. Interview with Sharif Zaid bin Shaker.

34
. Interview with Hasan Abu-Nimah.

35
. Interview with King Hussein bin Talal.

36
. Ibid.

37
. Interview with Adnan Abu-Odeh.

38
. Interview with King Abdullah bin Hussein.

39
. Khaled bin Sultan and Patrick Seale,
Desert Warrior: A Personal View of the Gulf War by the Joint Forces Commander
(London: HarperCollins, 1995), 181.

40
. Ibid., 210.

41
. Interview with King Hussein bin Talal. The 400,000 refugees from Kuwait included Palestinians and other Arabs, mainly Syrian and Iraqi Bedouins, who had no citizenship rights.
Bidun
literally means ‘without'. The actual number of refugees was closer to 300,000 then to 400,000.

42
. Adam Garfinkle,
Israel and Jordan in the Shadow of War: Functional Ties and Futile Diplomacy in a Small Place
(London: Macmillan, 1992), 173.

43
. Yitzhak Shamir,
Summing Up: An Autobiography
(London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1994), 218–19.

44
. Halevy,
Man in the Shadows,
29–30.

45
. Interview with Adnan Abu-Odeh.

46
. Interview with Ali Shukri.

47
. Moshe Zak,
Hussein oseh shalom [Hussein Makes Peace],
in Hebrew (Ramat-Gan: Bar-Ilan University Press, 1996), 35–6, 47–50, 227–8.

48
. Interview with King Hussein bin Talal.

49
. Interview with Sharif Zaid bin Shaker.

50
. Noor,
Leap of Faith,
324.

51
. Halevy,
Man in the Shadows,
31–2.

52
. Interview with Dan Meridor.

53
. Interview with Ali Shukri.

54
.
The 50 Years War,
transcript of interview for six-part BBC television series, Middle East Centre Archive, St Antony's College, Oxford (1998), King Hussein, 2 March 1997.

55
. Interview with Dan Meridor.

56
. Interview with King Abdullah bin Hussein.

57
. Interview with Sharif Zaid bin Shaker.

58
. Interview with King Abdullah bin Hussein.

59
. Uri Avnery, ‘In Israel, Reckless Talk about Jordan',
International Herald Tribune,
7 September 1990; and Ze'ev Schiff,
Ha'aretz,
3 March 1991.

60
. Jordan, White Paper,
61–6.

Chapter 24: From Madrid to Oslo

1
. Queen Noor,
Leap of Faith: Memoirs of an Unexpected Life
(London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 2003), 341.

2
. Adiba Mango, ‘Jordan on the Road to Peace 1988–1999' (unpublished D.Phil. thesis, University of Oxford, 2002), 94.

3
. James A. Baker III,
The Politics of Diplomacy: Revolution, War and Peace, 1989–1992
(New York: Putnam's, 1995), 450–51.

4
. Mango, ‘Jordan on the Road to Peace 1988–1999', 102.

5
. Baker III,
The Politics of Diplomacy,
451.

6
. Ibid., 464–5.

7
. Interview with King Hussein bin Talal.

8
. Baker III,
The Politics of Diplomacy,
423–5.

9
. Interview with Dr Musa al-Keilani.

10
. Interview with Dan Meridor.

Other books

Ghost Dog Secrets by Peg Kehret
Hearts Aglow by Tracie Peterson
Gifts of War by Mackenzie Ford
Play On by Heather C. Myers
Star of Light by Patricia M. St. John
Scott's Satin Sheets by Lacey Alexander
Nash (The Skulls) by Crescent, Sam
King of Campus by Jennifer Sucevic