Can Jordan fall in love with Saudi Arabia?

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.

A century ago the Hashemites, who have always occupied Jordan’s throne, were the Middle East’s leading dynasty but later became poor relations to their oil-richer rivals in the Gulf. Some fear that Saudi Arabia under its bearish crown prince, Muhammad bin Salman, better known as MBS, wants to turn Jordan into a kind of fief. Two years ago Jordan’s security courts accused unnamed foreign powers (guess who?) of trying to replace Abdullah with his half-brother, Hamzah, a charge vehemently denied.