Hussein bin Abdullah

Hussein bin Abdullah (born 28 June 1994) is Crown Prince of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, the eldest son of King Abdullah II and Queen Rania. He received the formal title by royal decree on 2 July 2009, having been heir apparent under the constitution since 2004. He graduated from Georgetown University in 2016 and from the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in 2017, serves as a major in the Jordanian Armed Forces, and has several times served as regent in his father's absence. ^{1 2}

In 2015, at the age of twenty, he became the youngest person to chair a session of the United Nations Security Council, and in September 2017, after graduating from Sandhurst, he delivered Jordan's speech to the UN General Assembly. ¹

Hussein was born on 28 June 1994 at the King Hussein Medical Center in Amman, and is the namesake of his grandfather, King Hussein. He is the eldest child of King Abdullah II and Queen Rania, and has three siblings: Princess Iman, Princess Salma and Prince Hashem. He began his education in Jordan, finished high school at King's Academy in 2012, obtained a bachelor's degree in International History at Georgetown University in 2016, and graduated from Sandhurst in 2017. ^{1 2}

The sources note that the Hashemites are among the oldest-ruling dynasties in the Muslim world, that his paternal grandmother Princess Muna is an English convert to Islam, and that his mother is of Palestinian descent. ¹

Abdullah was not expected to succeed his father: King Hussein had appointed his own younger brother, Prince Hassan, as heir in 1965, and replaced him with Abdullah shortly before his death on 7 February 1999. On his accession Abdullah named his younger half-brother, Prince Hamzah, crown prince, then removed the title from Hamzah on 28 November 2004. Under the constitution's rule of agnatic primogeniture Hussein thereby became heir apparent, and the formal title was conferred on him by royal decree on 2 July 2009. ¹

Under the Jordanian constitution the Crown Prince's role is mostly ceremonial. Hussein performed his first official engagement in June 2010, representing his father at the anniversary celebrations of the Arab Revolt and Armed Forces Day, and has since accompanied his father on official and military missions and served several times as regent. ¹

He is in charge of the Crown Prince Foundation, which is responsible for a technical university and a number of scientific and humanitarian initiatives, among them the Haqiq initiative for youth volunteerism; a NASA internship programme whose interns built the cubesat JY1, Jordan's first satellite, launched from California in 2018; the MASAR initiative for space technology; and the Hearing Without Borders initiative, which funds cochlear implants for Jordanians with impaired hearing. ¹

On 23 April 2015 he chaired the Security Council session on preventing young people from joining extremist groups, at which the Council unanimously adopted Resolution 2250, presented at Jordan's initiative; Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he was "not yet 21 years old, but he is already a leader in the 21st century". In May 2017 he made the welcoming speech at the World Economic Forum session held on the Jordanian shore of the Dead Sea. ¹

His engagement to Rajwa Al Saif was announced on 17 August 2022; they married on 1 June 2023 at Zahran Palace in Amman, and their first child, Princess Iman, was born on 3 August 2024, the first grandchild of King Abdullah II and Queen Rania. The sources report that his Instagram account has millions of followers and that he posts hobbies including reading, football, cooking, motorcycling, guitar and chess. ^{1 2}

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