Page 304 - They Also Served

showing support for Jordan in neutralising a mutual threat. The PLO fighters were allowed to retreat to Lebanon, where they became a catalyst for the subsequent civil war.
On 6th October 1973, Egypt and Syria attacked Israel in what became known as the Yom Kippur War. Jordan joined the Arab side in the latter stages, supporting Syria on the Golan Heights, but did not lose any further territory. After the rise of Saddam Hussein in 1979, Jordan became a close ally, supporting Iraq in its war with Iran and receiving subsidised oil in return. This, unfortunately, led to the marginalisation of Jordan by the international community, especially after Saddam invaded Kuwait. However, in 1994, King Hussein signed a peace treaty with Israel.
In May 1998, Hussein was diagnosed with cancer and undertook extensive treatment in the USA. After a short time back in Jordan, his condition worsened in early 1999 and he returned to the USA for further treatment. On 4th February, knowing the end was near, Hussein was flown back to Jordan with fighter jets from numerous countries, including the UK, escorting the aircraft across their airspace. Three days later, the king died. An estimated ten percent of the population of Jordan lined the funeral procession route. Hussein was succeeded by his eldest son, Abdullah, himself an alumnus of Sandhurst.
King Hussein held his country together for 46 years, in fact, it was calculated that 90% of all Jordanians had been born during his reign. With minimal natural resources, in the middle of a conflict zone and home to hundreds of thousands of refugees, his leadership steered the country through crisis after crisis, surviving numerous assassination attempts along the way. In 1980, an Israeli intelligence report described him as ‘A man trapped on a bridge burning at both ends, with crocodiles in the river beneath him’.
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