by Screaming Eagle on Sun Nov 11, 2007 4:06 am
I found this 5 year old article that sheds a little more light on this guy. One to watch for sure. I'm not sure how this is being played out in diplomatic circles right now but it's food for thought (and prayer) anyhow.
Hasan: The Next King of
Iraq?/A - Sami Moubayed (Gulf News - UAE) The Hashemite monarchy in Iraq
was toppled in 1958, yet there remains one Hashemite with the intelligence,
ambition, and stature to serve as leader of Iraq - Prince Hasan, the former
Crown Prince of Jordan.
Prince Hasan lived a lifetime in the shadow of his brother, King
Hussein of Jordan. When the king went to the U.S. for medical treatment,
Hasan was left in charge of Jordan's day-to-day affairs. When the dying
king returned to Jordan in February 1999 and learned of Hasan's plans to
dethrone him and appoint his own son, Rashed, as crown prince, Hussein
sacked Hasan from his post and appointed Abdullah as crown prince. Upon
Hussein's death on February 9, Abdullah became king.
Hasan appeared little in public during the years 1999 to 2001, then
surprised Arabs in general and Jordanians in particular by showing up at
the Iraqi opposition conference in London in July 2002.
Hasan attended the meeting with Dr. Ahmad Al Shalabi, the
self-appointed mastermind and financier of the Iraqi movement who had been
close to the ex-crown prince when serving as Director of the Petra Bank in
Amman in the 1980s.
The Paris-based Lebanese weekly Al-Watan al-Arabi published news of a
meeting in London between Hasan and members of the Iraqi opposition early
in 2002, entitled "King Hasan Ibin Talal: King of the Hashemite Kingdom of
Iraq." If the U.S. operation against Baghdad takes place, the magazine
reported, then Hasan will become constitutional monarch.
Hasan's involvement in the Iraqi opposition means that the U.S.
administration is serious in its desire to change the regime of Saddam.
Otherwise, he wouldn't have dared take such a controversial move.
Hasan has stressed the "common roots" between the Amman Hashemites and
the Hashemites in Baghdad (his grandfather Abdullah I, founder of Jordan,
is brother of Faysal I, founder of modern Iraq).
Yet coming to Baghdad on a U.S. tank will be difficult for any
politician, even someone with Hasan's skill, intellect, and experience