Jordan Government

At least Jordanians haven't lost their sense of humor. On the face of it, there's little to laugh about these days in the tiny but tidy kingdom that, both geographically and politically, sits somewhat uneasily at the center of things in the Middle East, surrounded by the area's five largest regional powers--Israel, Egypt, Iraq, Syria and Saudi Arabia.

The United States has quietly launched an international effort to stabilize Jordan's leadership in the face of fears that Iraq might try to topple the new monarch and that economic turmoil could destabilize the country's currency, U.S. officials said Saturday. The package of measures, pitched by President Clinton in a series of messages to world leaders, includes a request to Congress to free up $300 million in U.S.

King Hussein, in a move widely believed to reflect his growing frustration with Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization, dissolved the lower house of the Jordanian Parliament on Saturday, severing an important link between his East Bank kingdom and the Palestinians living in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.

He is his brother's protege, top advisor and closest friend. For 33 years, since King Hussein of Jordan tapped him as official successor, Crown Prince Hassan has played the understudy, learning the part but rarely getting the chance to exercise it. But Hassan is now--reluctantly--in the midst of a royal trial run, acting as regent while his beloved older brother undergoes treatment for lymphatic cancer in the United States.

Orderly, peaceful and sane. That's Jordan, often viewed as a small island of calm in the rough Middle East seas. And officials here would like it to stay that way. So when eight people, including an Iraqi diplomat, his wife and several Iraqi businessmen, were sliced up and killed in a hilltop villa in normally sedate Amman this month, it was a matter of no small concern to the government, which does not want Jordan to become a stage for violence by its stronger neighbors. The killings Jan.

Personally risky, deeply controversial and warmly human, it was a gesture that those who witnessed it will never forget. King Hussein of Jordan, direct descendant of the prophet Muhammad, had insisted on traveling to Israel to extend his personal condolences to the families of seven Israeli schoolgirls shot and killed during a border field trip by a deranged Jordanian soldier two years ago.

They filed past King Hussein's flag-shrouded coffin in remarkable homage Monday, many of them sworn enemies who until recently were bent on mutual destruction. Presidents and kings, muftis and sultans, generals and spies paused to pray for the Middle East's longest-serving ruler and to salute Jordan's new monarch, Abdullah II, on the first full day of his reign.

The Parliament of Jordan on Friday backed Iraq in the Persian Gulf War and branded the United States a "Great Satan" set on dominating the Arab and Muslim world. "Our people hold America fully responsible for every drop of blood that is shed in this battle," the lower house said in a tough statement urging all Muslim members of the U.S.-led alliance against Iraq to withdraw from its ranks. "God will decree victory for the Iraqi people and humiliation for all enemies of God and humanity.

In his debut this week as crown prince, Abdullah ibn Hussein seemed at ease as he smiled warmly and clasped hands with the hundreds of politicians, Bedouin tribal leaders and clerics who paraded across the marble floors of Raghadan Palace. "We should talk--soon," he whispered to one former prime minister. "Let's get together once all these formalities are over," he told a senator.

Finished with his tea and backgammon, Deeb Hamouda whipped out a Palestinian newspaper and planted a kiss on the front-page photograph of Jordan's dying King Hussein. "He was our best king," Hamouda, a farmer in his 70s, said with a smile. "But he was the cause of our disaster."