|
THE MUSLIM EMPIRE
MAPS OF
THE MUSLIM EMPIRE AND
HASHEMITE KINGDOM
OVERLAY
 
 THE
MUSLIM EMPIRE
THE HASHEMITE KINGDOM
THE
MUSLIM EMPIRE
ISLAMIC CONQUEST
In the first half of the 7th century, Syria was absorbed into the Muslim
caliphate. Arab forces had appeared on the southern border even before
the death of the Prophet Muhammad in 632, but the real invasion took place
in 633-634, with Halide bin al-Walid as its most important leader. In 635
Damascus surrendered, its inhabitants being promised security for their
lives, property, and churches, on payment of a poll tax. A counterattack
by the emperor Heraclius was defeated at the Battle of the Yarmuk River
in 636; by 640 the conquest was virtually complete.
The new rulers divided Syria into four districts (junds): Damascus, Hims,
Jordan, and Palestine (to which a fifth, Kinnasrin, was later added). The
Arab garrisons were kept apart in camps, and life went on much as before. Conversion
to Islam had scarcely begun, apart from Arab tribes already settled in
Syria; except for the tribe of Ghassan, these all became Muslim. Christians
and Jews were treated with toleration, and Nestorian and Jacobite Christians
had better treatment than they had under Byzantium. The Byzantine form
of administration remained, but the new Muslim tax system was introduced.
From 639 the governor of Syria was Mu'awiyah of the Meccan house of the
Umayyads. He used the country as a base for expeditions against the Byzantine
Empire, for this purpose building the first Muslim navy in the Mediterranean.
When civil war broke out in the Muslim Empire, as a result of the murder
of 'Uthman and the nomination of 'Ali as caliph, Syria stood firm behind
Mu'awiyah, who extended his authority over neighbouring provinces and was
proclaimed caliph in 660. He was the first of the Umayyad line, which ruled
the empire, with Syria as its core and Damascus its capital, for almost
a century.
'ABBASID DYNASTY
Second of the two great dynasties of the Muslim Empire of the Caliphate.
It overthrew the Umayyad caliphate in AD 750 and reigned as the 'Abbasid
caliphate until destroyed by the Mongol invasion in 1258.
The name is derived from that of the uncle of the Prophet Muhammad, al-'Abbas
(died c. 653), of the Hashemite clan of the Quraysh tribe in Mecca. From
c. 718, members of his family worked to gain control of the empire, and
by skillful propaganda won much support, especially from Shi'i Arabs and
Persians in Khorasan. Open revolt in 747, under the leadership of Abu Muslim,
led to the defeat of Marwan II, the last Umayyad caliph, at the Battle
of the Great Zab River (750) in Mesopotamia and to the proclamation of
the first 'Abbasid caliph, Abu al-'Abbas as-Saffah.
Under the 'Abbasids the caliphate entered a new phase. Instead of focusing,
as the Umayyads had done, on the West--on North Africa, the Mediterranean,
and southern Europe--the caliphate now turned eastward. The capital was
moved to the new city of Baghdad, and events in Persia and Transoxania
were closely watched. For the first time the caliphate was not coterminous
with Islam; in Egypt, North Africa, Spain, and elsewhere, local dynasties
claimed caliphal status. With the rise of the 'Abbasids the base for influence
in the empire became international, emphasizing membership in the community
of believers rather than Arab nationality. Since much support for the 'Abbasids
came from Persian converts, it was natural for the 'Abbasids to take over
much of the Persian (Sasanian) tradition of government. Support by pious
Muslims likewise led the 'Abbasids to acknowledge publicly the embryonic
Islamic law and to profess to base their rule on the religion of Islam.
Between 750 and 833 the 'Abbasids raised the prestige and power of the
empire, promoting commerce, industry, arts, and science, particularly during
the reigns of al-Mansur, Harun ar-Rashid, and al-Ma`mun. Their temporal
power, however, began to decline when al-Mu'tasim introduced non-Muslim
Berber, Slav, and especially Turkish mercenary forces into his personal
army. Although these troops were converted to Islam, the base of imperial
unity through religion was gone, and some of the new army officers quickly
learned to control the caliphate through assassination of any caliph who
would not accede to their demands.
The power of the army officers had already weakened through internal rivalries
when the Iranian Buyids entered Baghdad in 945, demanding of al-Mustakfi
(944-946) that they be recognized as the sole rulers of the territory they
controlled. This event initiated a century-long period in which much of
the empire was ruled by local secular dynasties. In 1055 the 'Abbasids
were overpowered by the Seljuqs, who took what temporal power may have
been left to the caliph but respected his position as religious leader,
restoring the authority of the caliphate, especially during the reigns
of al-Mustarshid (1118-35), al-Muqtafi, and an-Nasir. Soon after, in 1258,
the dynasty fell during a Mongol siege of Baghdad.
THE
HASHEMITE KINGDOM
THE OLD
HASHEMITE KINGDOM
AND THE PALESTINE WAR
During World War I the Arabs joined the British against the Ottomans. In
a revolt of 1916, in which they were assisted by Colonel T.E. Lawrence,
the Arabs cut the Hejaz railway. In July 1917 the army of Prince Faysal
ibn Husayn (of the Hashemite dynasty) captured al-'Aqabah, and by October
1918 Amman and Damascus were in Allied hands. In 1920 the Conference of
San Remo (Italy) created two mandates, allotting the one over Palestine
to Great Britain and the one over Syria to France. This act effectively
separated the area now covered by Israel and Jordan from that of Syria.  In
November 1920 Abdullah, Faysal's brother, arrived in Ma'an, then part of
the Hejaz, with 2,000 armed supporters intent on raising the tribes to
attack the French, who had forced Faysal to relinquish his newly founded
kingdom in Syria. By April 1921, however, the British had prevailed upon
Abdullah to take over as ruler of what then became known as Transjordan.
Effectively, Turkish rule in Transjordan was simply replaced by British
rule. The mandate, confirmed by the League of Nations in July 1922, gave
the British virtually a free hand in administering the territory, although
in September 1922 it was explicitly excluded from the clauses regarding
the establishment of "a Jewish national home" and was closed to Jewish
immigration. The British recognized Transjordan's independence under the
rule of Emir Abdullah on May 25, 1923, codified in a treaty in 1928 (excluding
matters of finance and military and foreign affairs, which remained in
the hands of a British "resident"). In April 1928 a constitution was promulgated.
Full independence was achieved after World War II by a treaty concluded
in London on March 22, 1946, and on May 25 Abdullah proclaimed himself
king. A new constitution was promulgated, and in 1949 the name of the state
was changed to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.
Throughout the interwar years Abdullah had been dependent on British financial
support. He also was assisted by them in the formation of an elite force,
the Arab Legion, which was commanded and trained by British officers but
staffed with Bedouin troops, to maintain order and secure the allegiance
of his Bedouin subjects. On May 15, 1948, the day after the Jewish Agency
proclaimed the independent state of Israel and immediately after the British
withdrew from their Palestine mandate, Transjordan joined its Arab neighbors in the first Arab-Israeli war. The Arab Legion, commanded by Glubb Pasha
(John [later Sir John] Bagot Glubb), as well as Egyptian, Syrian, Lebanese,
and Iraqi troops entered Palestine. Abdullah's primary purpose, which he
had spelled out in secret discussions with Jewish envoys, was to extend
his rule to include the area allotted to the Palestinian Arabs under the
United Nations partition resolution of November 1947. Accordingly, he engaged
his forces in the area of Palestine popularly known as the West Bank and
expelled Jewish forces from East Jerusalem (the Old City). When the Jordan-Israel
armistice was signed on April 3, 1949, the West Bank and East Jerusalem--an
area of about 2,100 square miles--came under Jordanian rule, and the half-million
Transjordanians were joined by almost half a million more Palestinian Arabs.
This territory was formally annexed by the kingdom in April 1950. Israel
and Britain had tacitly agreed to Abdullah keeping the area, but the Arab
countries and most of the world opposed the king's action, and only Britain
and Pakistan recognized the annexation. The incorporation of the West Bank,
with 400,000 Palestinians, into Jordan, as well as a large refugee population
that, on the whole, was hostile to the Hashemite regime, brought with them
severe economic and political consequences. On the other hand, Abdullah
did gain the Muslim shrines such as the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem's
Old City, which compensated for his father's loss of Mecca and Medina at
the hands of Ibn Sa'ud a generation earlier.
Abdullah was assassinated at the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem on July 20,
1951, by a young Palestinian frustrated by the king's hostility to Palestinian
nationalist aspirations. Abdullah's son, Talal, who succeeded him, was
declared unfit to rule by parliament because of mental illness after only
one year (in August 1952). Talal abdicated in favor of his eldest son,
Hussein ibn-Talal, who was crowned king on his 18th birthday, on May 2,
1953.
 
JORDAN
UNDER KING HUSSEIN
SECURING THE THRONE
1953-1960
A country poor in resources, Jordan is surrounded by wealthier and more
powerful states. More than 60 percent of its population are Palestinians,
the majority of whom arrived as displaced persons following the Arab-Israeli
wars of 1948 and 1967 and the Persian Gulf War of 1991. Their presence
has added to the economic and political problems of the kingdom.
Jordan has had to depend on outside economic assistance for most of its
history. Before 1948 this came primarily from the United Kingdom. Following
the Six-Day War with Israel in 1967 aid was provided by the United States
and other Western countries (although suspended during the time of the
Persian Gulf War), as well as by Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia,
Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates.
The history of Jordan after 1953 was largely shaped by King Hussein's policies
to secure his throne and to retain or regain the West Bank for the Hashemite
dynasty. Jordan's relationship with Israel in the first decade of the Jewish
state's existence, although uneasy, was tolerable, though bloody raids
and acts of terrorism carried out by each side added to the tension. The
kingdom's involvement in the Palestinian question led as much to a contest
with Egypt over Jordan's future as it did to a struggle with Israel. In
particular, it repeatedly forced Jordan to walk a tightrope between various
Arab nations, the Palestinians, and the West and Israel. Thus, popular
demonstrations, especially in the West Bank, and pressure from Egypt prevented
Hussein in 1955 from signing the pro-Western mutual defense treaty between
Great Britain, Turkey, Iran, and Iraq known as the Baghdad Pact, which
he had helped initiate. And in 1956 Hussein--bowing to popular pressure
and in a show of support for Egyptian efforts at pan-Arab leadership--dismissed
his British advisers, including Commander in Chief Glubb, and abrogated
the Anglo-Jordanian treaty of 1946. However, when members of the National
Guard, drawn mainly from the West Bank, attempted a coup d'état
in April 1957, the king, supported by loyal East Bank Bedouins, acted decisively
to curb domestic unrest; he purged the legislature of Palestinian nationalists
and extremists, banned political parties, and set up a royal dictatorship.
After Egypt and Syria merged in February 1958, establishing the United
Arab Republic (UAR; 1958-61), Hussein was persuaded by his cousin King
Faysal II to join in a federal union with Iraq. In
July 1958, however, Faysal and his family were killed in an army coup coordinated
by Gamal Abdel Nasser. Hussein, realizing his regime was under threat,
turned to Great Britain and the United States for assistance.
Washington agreed to provide additional military as well as economic aid.
The British government, eager to see the pro-Western Hussein secure in
Jordan, stationed British paratroops in the country between July and November
1958. This thwarted a further attempt by anti-Hashemite Palestinians supported
by Nasser to overthrow the monarchy. By the early 1960s the United States
was providing about $100 million per year, enabling economic development,
and, despite a number of assassination attempts, the king's future appeared
secure.
THE PLO
AND THE
JUNE 1967 WAR
The emergence in the late 1960s of the Palestine Liberation Organization
(PLO) and the militant group al-Fatah represented a potential threat to
Jordan's sovereignty on the West Bank as well as to Israel. In early 1965
al-Fatah, supported by the radical Ba'ath Party government in Syria and
encouraged by Egypt, began a series of raids against Israel, generally
from Jordan, inflicting serious casualties and damage. Israel
responded with raids into the West Bank in an effort to force Jordan to
quash these military operations. Relations between Jordan and Syria and
Egypt and between the Palestinians and Amman deteriorated. Privately, Hussein
had been seeking an understanding with Israel over an approach to the external
and internal dangers facing the two countries. In late 1966 the Israeli
army made a devastating raid into the West Bank village of as-Samu south
of Hebron, destroying many of its houses. Hussein responded by attempting
to stop the passage of Syrian-based Palestinian guerrillas through Jordan
into Israel, eventually breaking off diplomatic ties with Syria (May 23,
1967). However, as tension mounted between Israel and Egypt and Syria in
the spring of 1967, Jordan reversed its position and on May 30 signed a
defense pact with Egypt and Syria, placing Jordanian forces under Egyptian
command. Despite assurances from Israel that Jordan would not be attacked
if it remained neutral, Israeli and Jordanian forces clashed in East Jerusalem,
and King Hussein joined Egypt and Syria in the third Arab-Israel war in
June 1967.
The June 1967 war was a watershed in the modern history of Jordan. Within
48 hours Israeli forces had overrun the entire territory west of the Jordan
River, capturing Bethlehem, Hebron, Jericho, Nablus, Ram Allah, Janin,
and the city of Jerusalem. Jordan suffered heavy casualties and lost one-third
of its most fertile land, and its already overburdened economy was faced
with supporting some 200,000 new refugees. Hussein had regarded entering
the war as the lesser of two evils; he believed that, if he had not joined
Egypt and Syria, they would have supported the Palestinians in overthrowing
his regime. The loss of the West Bank and Jerusalem, devastating as it
was, was preferable to the loss of his kingdom.
FROM 1967 TO CIVIL WAR
Following the June war Hussein faced three major problems: how to recover
from the economic losses caused by the war, how to live with Israel's occupation
of the West Bank and the annexation of East Jerusalem, and how to preserve
the Hashemite throne against a considerably augmented and increasingly
hostile Palestinian population. The war reversed the progress made in Jordan's
economy prior to June 1967, even though Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Libya
provided the kingdom with foreign aid. Yet within a short period both the
United States and Great Britain resumed economic and military aid. In 1971
arrangements also were made with Israel enabling Jordanian cultivation
in the Jordan Valley.
Despite the fact that an Arab summit meeting held in Khartoum in August
1967 passed the "three no's" resolution--no peace with Israel, no recognition
of Israel, and no negotiations with Israel--King Hussein resumed his secret
negotiations with Israel over the disposition of the West Bank and East
Jerusalem. Relations with Israel were thus inseparably linked to the future
of the Palestinians. Somewhat unrealistically, Hussein sought the return
of all the territory lost to Jordanian rule, but, while willing privately
to recognize Israel and to cooperate with it across a wide range of issues,
he was not prepared to sign a peace treaty with the Jewish state. The two
nations were thus no longer enemies and cooperated against PLO terrorism,
but there was little progress toward a lasting peace.
Hussein's relations with the PLO, which under the chairmanship of Yasser 'Arafat openly challenged the king's control in East Jordan, reached a
crisis in September 1970. The radical Marxist Palestinian group, the Popular
Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), hijacked four international
airliners and blew up three of them in Dawson's Field, a deserted airstrip
in the Jordanian desert. On September 16 the king declared martial law
and called in loyal troops, and civil war (later remembered as Black September)
erupted. When 250 Syrian tanks entered northern Jordan in support of the
PLO, Hussein was forced not only to call upon military assistance from
the United States and Great Britain but also to allow Israeli military over flights
to attack the Syrian forces. The Syrian forces were defeated,
and a peace agreement, in which Hussein made concessions to the PLO, was
signed by King Hussein and 'Arafat in Cairo on Sept. 27, 1970. By July
1971, however, Hussein had forced the PLO guerrillas out of Jordan.
FROM 1973 TO THE INTAFADA
King Hussein chose not to join Egypt and Syria in their surprise attack
on Israel in the war of
October 1973, although he did make a symbolic gesture by sending tanks
to assist Syria in the Golan Heights. In negotiations immediately following
the war, Hussein once again demanded the return of the West Bank and East
Jerusalem from Israel. He was bitter that Israel--in response to pressure
from U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger--proposed a withdrawal of
its forces from Israeli-occupied Egyptian territory but made no such overtures
to Jordan, the neighbor that had stayed out of the war. Yet
by August 1974 discussions were under way with Israel over "disengagement
accords" that included the recognition of Jordan as speaking for the Palestinians,
regional economic cooperation, and tactical cooperation, especially in
relation to the threat posed by Palestinian guerrilla groups. However,
on Oct. 28, 1974, 20 leaders of the Arab League at an Arab summit meeting
in Rabat, Mor., declared that the Palestinian people, under the leadership
of the PLO ("their sole legitimate representative"), had the right to establish
a national independent authority in liberated Palestine. On Nov. 4, 1974,
Hussein announced that Jordan would exclude the West Bank from Jordan and
that a federation between Jordan and a Palestinian state was "totally inconceivable,"
as such a step would inevitably give the Palestinian population a majority
and bring about the loss of his kingdom. Faced with American reluctance
to supply arms and an Egyptian-Israeli Sinai accord, Jordan and Syria,
in an effort to control PLO activities, agreed in August 1975 to a joint
"supreme command" to coordinate their foreign and military policies. On
March 9, 1977, Hussein met with 'Arafat in Cairo, their first meeting since
Black September 1970. In July 1977 Hussein, Egyptian President Anwar el-Sadat,
and U.S. President Jimmy Carter once again floated the idea of a link between
Jordan and a Palestinian "entity," but in August the idea was denounced
by the PLO.
The election of the right-wing Likud bloc with Menachem Begin as Israeli
prime minister in May 1977 brought relations between Jordan and Israel
to a low ebb. Jordan was faced with Begin's determination to annex and
retain all of the West Bank, which Israel now called Judaea and Samaria.
Begin greatly accelerated the program of constructing Jewish settlements
in the West Bank and Gaza. Although Israel was committed to granting autonomy
to the Palestinians and to negotiating the future status of the occupied
territories under the terms of the Israeli-Egyptian agreement hammered
out at Camp David in 1978, Hussein condemned the agreement. He completely
broke off the 15-year secret negotiations with Israel. From late 1977 until
1984 Jordanian contacts with Israel came to a virtual halt. Hussein became
increasingly alarmed at the rise in popularity in Israel of the view that
Jordan was, in fact, the Palestinian state and that the conflict between
Israel and the Palestinians would end only when the artificial entity--Jordan--officially
became the Palestinian state. Israel's invasion of Lebanon in 1982 fueled
fears in Amman that this was the first step in the process of transferring
Palestinians to the East Bank.
In the early 1980s Hussein sought an accommodation with 'Arafat and the
PLO. The
king realized that 'Arafat, following his expulsion from Lebanon and the
destruction of his bases, was almost entirely friendless and in need of
his support. The two men reached a temporary if somewhat uneasy alliance.
In order to strengthen his legitimacy in the eyes of Palestinians, Hussein,
in 1984, allowed the Palestine National Council (a virtual parliament of
the Palestinians) to meet in Amman, and in February 1985 he signed the
"Hussein-'Arafat" agreement pledging cooperation with the PLO and coordination
of a joint peace initiative. Hussein believed that 'Arafat would accept
a confederation of the West and East Banks with autonomy for the Palestinians
of the West Bank under Jordanian sovereignty. 'Arafat, however, although
agreeable to an eventual confederation between a future Palestinian state
and Jordan, had not given up hope of an independent Palestinian state in
the West Bank. In January 1984 Hussein reconvened parliament for the first
time since 1974, appointing seven new West Bank representatives and allowing
by-elections to be held in March for eight East Bank vacancies in the 60-member
House of Representatives. Women were included in the electorate for the
first time.
In February 1986 Hussein, frustrated by 'Arafat's ambiguity regarding the
PLO's recognition of Israel and the renunciation of terrorism, which in
turn confirmed Israeli intransigence, repudiated the Amman agreement with
'Arafat and broke off negotiations with the PLO. Although the king was
careful not to expel the PLO from Jordan entirely, despite an increase
in guerrilla violence in the West Bank, he did order the closure of the
PLO offices in Amman in March 1986. In a complete turnaround in the Jordanian
policy that had been followed since the Arab Rabat summit of 1974, he declared
that he would now be responsible for the economic welfare of the West Bank
Palestinians and that the West Bank would be included in the new five-year
plan for Jordan to be announced in August. The king also approved an increase
in the number of Palestinian seats (to about half) in an enlarged National
Assembly. His goal was to create a Jordanian-Palestinian-Israeli administration
that would make the West Bank independent of the PLO and enable him to
reach a settlement with Israel in which he would regain at least partial
sovereignty of the area.
By April 1987 Hussein and Shimon Peres, Israel's foreign minister, agreed
to a UN-sponsored conference involving all parties to the conflict to seek
a comprehensive peace.
The Palestinian representatives would be part of a Jordanian-Palestinian
delegation. Although the proposal was endorsed by U.S. President Ronald
Reagan, the Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Shamir wanted a conference with
only Jordan and resisted American pressure for a comprehensive peace conference. King
Hussein scored a diplomatic triumph with the staging of an Arab League
summit meeting in Amman in November 1987. During this meeting Arab League
members agreed to reestablish diplomatic relations with Egypt. More importantly
for the king, the Palestinian issue was not the main topic: the Iran-Iraq
War, then in its eighth year, took precedence.
The situation changed dramatically in December 1987 with the outbreak of
the intafada, a Palestinian uprising on the West Bank. King Hussein quickly
realized that the uprising was directed against his rule as well as that
of the Israelis. His immediate response was to support the intafada publicly
and to offer aid to families of victims of Israeli reprisals in an effort
to deflect hostility to his regime. But the intafada leaders (known as
the Unified Command) renounced the king's overtures. 'Arafat quickly assumed
the role of spokesman for the revolt. The intafada brought to a halt Jordanian
and Israeli plans for an economic path to peace. Hussein canceled the five-year
plan for the West Bank.
RENOUNCING CLAIMS
TO THE WEST BANK
An emergency meeting of the Arab League in June 1988 gave the PLO financial
control of support for the Palestinians, thereby virtually acknowledging
'Arafat as their spokesman. In response Hussein, on July 31, renounced
all Jordanian claim to the West Bank, allowing the PLO to assume full responsibility. He
dissolved the Jordanian parliament (half of whose members were West Bank
representatives), ceased salary payments of 21,000 West Bank civil servants,
and ordered that West Bank Palestinian passports be converted to two-year
travel documents. When the Palestine National Council recognized the PLO
as the sole legal representative of the Palestinian people and proclaimed
the independence of a purely national Palestine on Nov. 15, 1988, Hussein
immediately extended recognition to the Palestinian entity.
In November 1989 Jordan held its first parliamentary elections in 22 years.
Opposition groups, particularly the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood,
gained more seats than the pro-government candidates, and the newly elected
prime minister, Mudar Badran, promised to lift the martial law in place
since 1967--a promise not fully kept until July 1991.
FROM THE PERSIAN GULF WAR
TO PEACE WITH ISRAEL
Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in August 1990 and the subsequent 44-day Persian
Gulf War in January-February 1991 forced Hussein to choose between two
allies, the United States and Iraq. The
king leaned heavily toward the "Arab Patriot" Saddam Hussein, who also
received a zealous and vocal groundswell of support from the Jordanian
people. In addition, trade with Iraq represented 40 percent of the kingdom's
gross domestic product. Kuwait's allies immediately cut off all aid to
Jordan, imposed an air and sea blockade, and condemned King Hussein's actions.
To make matters worse, 200,000 to 300,000 refugees from Kuwait were expelled
or fled (back) to Jordan. However,
by the end of 1991 the United States and Israel were again seeking Hussein's
support for an American-Israeli peace initiative. It was later unintentionally
released that Hussein had been acting as a double agent for the United
States during the war. This led Saddam to place a bounty on the head of
the king. However, he once again took up the challenge and became and agent
for peace in the region. A peace that his kingdom needs as desperately
as the Israelis.
The first multiparty general election since 1956 was scheduled for November
1993. In August the king dissolved the 80-member House of Representatives
(the lower house of the bicameral National Assembly) and announced that
the election would be conducted on a one-person-one-vote system rather
than on the old "slate" system that allowed voters to cast as many votes
as there were representatives in their constituency. In the election the
number of anti-Zionist Islamic militants--who made up the Islamic Action
Front (IAF), a coalition of Islamic groupings and the largest of the 20
political parties--was reduced from 36 to 16, giving the king the support
he had sought for his policy.
King
Hussein expressed public reservations over a PLO-Israeli accord, the Declaration
of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements in the occupied territories
signed on Sept. 13, 1993, but he stated his willingness to support the
Palestinian people. He was concerned over issues relating to Jordan's economic
links with the West Bank and the future status of Palestinians in Jordan.
About one year later, on Oct. 26, 1994, Jordan and Israel signed a full
peace treaty, in which King Hussein was recognized as the custodian of
the Muslim holy sites in East Jerusalem.
|