Introduction

Background

Following the conclusion of World War I and the breakup of the Ottoman Empire, Britain was granted a mandate by the League of Nations to oversee a significant portion of the Middle East. In 1921, Britain established a semi-autonomous region known as Transjordan, carving it out from Palestine, and acknowledged ABDALLAH I of the Hashemite lineage as the inaugural leader of the nation. The Hashemite family also governed the Hijaz, which corresponds to the western coastal region of present-day Saudi Arabia, until 1925, when they were expelled by IBN SAUD and the Wahhabi tribes. The nation achieved independence in 1946, subsequently becoming known as the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.

The kingdom has been ruled by four monarchs. King HUSSEIN, who reigned from 1953 to 1999, adeptly managed the competing interests of the major powers (the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union), various Arab nations, Israel, and Palestinian factions. This led to a brief civil conflict in 1970, referred to as "Black September," which concluded with King HUSSEIN expelling the militants.

Since gaining independence, Jordan's borders have evolved. During the first Arab-Israeli War in 1948, Jordan assumed control of the West Bank and East Jerusalem, ultimately annexing these areas in 1950 and granting Jordanian citizenship to the newly acquired Palestinian inhabitants. However, in 1967, Jordan lost the West Bank and East Jerusalem to Israel during the Six-Day War, though it maintained administrative claims over the West Bank until 1988, when King HUSSEIN formally renounced Jordan's claims in favor of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). In 1994, King HUSSEIN signed a peace agreement with Israel, following the signing of the Oslo Accords between Israel and the PLO in 1993.

The kings of Jordan assert their custodianship of the Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem based on their Hashemite lineage as descendants of the Prophet Mohammad and through accords with Israeli and local religious and Palestinian authorities. After Israel captured East Jerusalem during the 1967 conflict, it permitted the Jordanian-controlled Islamic Trust, or Waqf, to continue managing the Al Haram ash Sharif/Temple Mount sacred compound, and the peace treaty between Jordan and Israel reaffirmed Jordan's "special role" in overseeing the Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem. Furthermore, the Jordanian monarchy claims custodianship of the Christian sites in Jerusalem founded on the 7th-century Pact of Omar, whereby the Muslim leader, upon taking Jerusalem, agreed to allow Christian worship.

Upon the death of King HUSSEIN in 1999, his eldest son, ABDALLAH II, ascended to the throne. In 2009, ABDALLAH II appointed his son HUSSEIN as Crown Prince. Throughout his reign, ABDALLAH II has faced numerous challenges, including the influx of refugees from neighboring countries during the Arab Spring, the COVID-19 pandemic, the repercussions of the war in Ukraine, a consistently fragile economy, and the Israel-HAMAS conflict that erupted in October 2023.