Middle East & Africa | A wishful wedding

Can Jordan fall in love with Saudi Arabia?

Dynastic alliances don’t always last

2JWTKTJ 17-08-2022 Jordan Crown Prince Hussein (or Al Hussein) bin Abdullah II engaged to Rajwa Khaled bin Musaed bin Saif bin Abdulaziz Al Saif in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia(Photo by Nieboer/PPE/Sipa USA)
Love, not geopoliticsImage: Alamy
|Amman

When Britain had an empire, Jordan’s King Hussein took British and American wives, among others. Seeking to keep a constituency closer to home happy, his son Abdullah, the present king, married a Palestinian. Now Jordan’s crown prince, another Hussein, is to marry a Saudi architect.

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This article appeared in the Middle East & Africa section of the print edition under the headline “Can Jordan and Saudi Arabia fall in love?”

From the May 27th 2023 edition

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