Jordan celebrates major royal wedding between Prince Hussein and Saudi Rajwa Al Saif, strengthening ties with Saudi Arabia

For the first time in nearly thirty years, Jordan is celebrating a major royal wedding. Today, the crown prince, Prince Hussein, marries the Saudi woman Rajwa Al Saif. The event is accompanied by a lot of pomp and circumstance, including famous guests, such as the Dutch royal couple and Princess Amalia.

And the hope is that the marriage will strengthen ties between Jordan and Saudi Arabia. Until recently, the relationship between the Jordanian and Saudi royal houses was very tense.

Prince Hussein is 28, the first son of Jordan’s King Abdullah II and Queen Rania. He is a captain in the Jordanian army and has been preparing for kingship for years. He studied in England and the United States and in 2015 became the youngest person ever to chair a meeting of the UN Security Council. He was allowed to address the General Assembly two years later and twice accompanied his father during state visits to President Biden at the White House.

Last August, he got engaged to Rajwa Al Saif, 29 years old and an architect. Her father is a businessman, but more importantly, her mother belongs to the royal family of Saudi Arabia. Rajwa himself is a niece of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

These are images of the ceremony:

Rajwa can thus become Jordan’s first Saudi queen. And that is saying something, because in recent years things have not gotten along between the countries.

When Donald Trump was in the White House, America strongly strengthened ties with Saudi Arabia. This allowed the Saudis in the Middle East to flex their muscles. For example, the boycott of Qatar and the ‘kidnapping’ of the Lebanese Prime Minister followed, two actions in which Riyadh played a major role and which caused a stir in the region.

But the Saudis’ new stance became a problem for Jordan in April 2021, when Jordanian authorities made a shocking discovery: a group of high-ranking conspirators was planning a coup in Amman. The alleged coup leader was the half-brother of the Jordanian king, the former crown prince, Hamzah, who is still house arrest has.

One of the many detainees turned out to have encrypted messages exchanged with an adviser to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The conversation between the coup plotters was about how and when they could best destabilize the regime of Jordan’s King Abdullah. They would have wanted to use the corona pandemic and Jordan’s weak economy to stir up unrest.

Saudi Arabia denied any involvement in the coup attempt and sent a delegation to Amman to personally assure King Abdullah that the country had no bad intentions. But Abdullah was not reassured. He flew to Riyadh with his son Hussein and directly told Mohammed bin Salman that no one would benefit from destabilizing his country.

With today’s marriage, the two countries seem to be moving closer. Immediately after the engagement, the Saudi crown prince called Hussein to wish him and his wife-to-be good luck.