THE JORDAN SCENE KING HUSSEIN’S PEACE IS MAINTAINED AT HIGH COST

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31115, 19 July 1966, Page 16

THE JORDAN SCENE KING HUSSEIN’S PEACE IS MAINTAINED AT HIGH COST

<By

CLARK HOLLINGWORTH

in the ''Guardian”. Manchester!

("Reprinted bp arrangement!

When King Hussein leaves Amman for his state visit to London today he will be able to stow away the revolver he always wears under his jacket as a permanent precaution against assassination. But he will also be reasonably confident that while he is in England, neither “the colonels” nor the politicians will organise a coup d’etat in his absence. Although the Egyptian-controlled Palestine Radio daily advocates the overthrow of “the last of the Hashemites,” Hussein appears to enjoy the confidence of a majority of the men at the top.

The King Is proud of being a professional soldier, not merely nominal commander-in-chief of his well-fed and well-paid Army. Although no whiz-kid, he has played an important role in collaboration with his defence planners—most of whom are Sandhurst trained, with Bth or 9th Army experience—in the transformation of the 7000 strong Arab Legion of Glubb Pasha into the new regular Arab Army of today, which boasts 45,000 men. Israeli Arms

The basic reason for this expensive change is to be found across the 350 miles of joint frontier with Israel. The Tel-Aviv Government now spend around £lOO million annually on their defence forces. They have French AMX tanks in addition to Pattons and SSIO and SSII anti-tank missiles, Hawk ground to air missiles, as well as Mirage 111 jet fighters equipped with Matra air to air missiles. But it would be unfair not to add that Jordan has also been attempting to keep up with the changes of the Arab world, the United Arab Republic and Algeria with their MiGs, Saudi Arabia with Mirage fighters, and even Syria with its hotchpotch Russian equipment. Jordan spends £23 million sterling annually on its defence forces and police (excluding grants from the United Arab Command). Although this is merely a quarter of Israel’s outlay, it is over two-thirds of Jordan’s domestic revenue of £35 million. The Chief of Staff, MajorGeneral Amer Kamish, and his deputy Rashid Arikat, are the real brains of the army. They both told me that its role was entirely a defensive one, and all contingency planning is on this basis. These dedicated soldiers have been collaborating with the United Arab Command, which was established in Cairo after the meeting of the Arab summit in 1964 solely on a planning basis. In return for the collaboration, Jordan is receiving considerable but undisclosed sums to pay for the expansion Of defence forces, which has been slightly halted at the moment, owing to the over-crowding of the wellorganised new training establishments. But expansion may well begin again during the course of the next few years in the hope of reaching the target of 55,000 men. The Jordanian Army is

organised on a British pattern. The Royal Guards brigade is based on King Hussein's working palace in the centre of Amman. There are two armoured brigade groups, one of which is based in Zerka just to the north of Amman and is under the command of a kinsman of King Hussein. Here Centurion tanks are being moth-balled in favour of American M4B Patton tanks, to which extra fuel tanks have been added for service in the desert. There is still a small camel corps and cavalry units for desert patrols. Four out of a total of six infantry brigade groups generally march on their own feet, although in an emergency they can be transported in lorries or civilian trucks. The two crack brigade groups have Ferrets and a thousand armoured personnel carriers as well as sufficient army trucks to take their full strength. The general staff openly proclaims that they give preference to British weapons, vehicles and equipment, but this is now all too often outpriced by other European and American producers who offer speedier delivery and far better credit terms. It was foolish of the United Arab Command to suggest that Jordan should purchase three squadrons of Lightnings, the approximate cost of which would be around £4O million, but if they are to purchase jet interceptor fighters, it would certainly have been more suitable to have had, say, one squadron of Lightnings and shared the ground and other facilities with Saudi Arabia rather than to buy American Flo4s.

Doubtless the price was the vital factor in this choice but also a foolish story has been accepted by many of the Jordanian senior officers that the Lightning is an outdated aircraft which Britain is soon about to replace. Fewer Bedouins

There have been various purges in the defence forces during the last few years. Glubb Pasha relied largely on Bedouin tribesmen, who in spite of their illiteracy, were quick to learn and deeply loyal to the Hashemite family. There was a far higher proportion of Arab Christian officers too.

King Hussein felt his new semi-mechanised army required soldiers with more education than the Bedouins possessed, and many of the tribesmen were dismissed. There have also been one or two purges of Nasser-type

nationalists. Indeed, only a few weeks ago, over a hundred soldiers, mostly officers, were arrested on suspicion that they were undercover workers for Socialists. Communists, or extreme nationalists. This may have been a clever move on the part of King Hussein whose quarrel with the Arab Palestine leader, Achmed Shukairi, has intensified during the last few weeks. The basic cause of the trouble is that Shukairi

wanted Palestinians serving the United Arab Command to be in separate battalions, but within the Jordanian Army. Hussein hotly refused to consider such a proposition, and relations were badly strained before the King made a speech in which he said “we find communism, with its plans to Bolshevise the world makes the Zionist danger it self become small." This naturally caused violent vituperations on the Palestine Radio. The chances are that it will blow over, but if not, Jordan may need funds to replace those now cominr from the United Arab Com mand in Cairo to Jordan. Escalation Avoided The army have recently evolved a more fluid means of guarding the long frontier with Israel. In all the sensitive areas, there are regular patrols, while infantry battalion groups, mostly engaged in intensive training, are stationed some five to ten miles behind the line in readiness to rush forward should an emergency occur. But it is most noticeable that in the accounts of all recent incidents, both sides have kept the operations limited to those weapons normally employed only in an internal security role. Escalation has been strenuously avoided, and neither heavy weapons nor aircraft are employed by either side.