Ammon News - AMMONNEWS - Jordan celebrates His Majesty King Abdullah’s 50th birthday today.

On the occasion, His Majesty received congratulatory cables from several heads of state as well as senior officials and officers, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

Born in Amman on January 30, 1962, King Abdullah is the eldest son of His Majesty the late King Hussein and HRH Princess Muna.

A Royal Decree was issued on January 24, 1999 naming him Crown Prince.

The King began his primary education at the Islamic Educational College in Amman, and later attended St. Edmund’s School in Surrey, England.

For his secondary education, he attended Eaglebrook School and Deerfield Academy in the US.

King Abdullah joined the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst in the United Kingdom in 1980, and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in 1981.

He joined the Jordan Armed Forces in 1982, moving up the ranks in the military to become commander of the Royal Jordanian Special Forces and Special Operations. He also served with the Royal Jordanian Air Force Anti-Tank Wing where he received his wings as well as his qualification as a Cobra attack pilot.

King Abdullah married Her Majesty Queen Rania on June 10, 1993 and they have four children: Their Royal Highnesses Crown Prince Hussein, Princess Iman, Princess Salma and Prince Hashem.

Since his accession to the Throne in 1999, King Abdullah has focused on enhancing the capabilities of Jordanians, entrenching the concept of respect and the dignity of citizens, ensuring the sovereignty of the law, realising equality, justice and equal opportunities for all, in addition to focusing on pushing the development process forward and highlighting the effective role of Jordan in the international arena.

Since then, King Abdullah has travelled extensively throughout the country to meet with local communities and encourage them to become engaged in developing strategies to upgrade their living standards out of his keenness in taking a first-hand look at citizens’ needs, demands and problems.

Over the past year, His Majesty has continued paying visits to different parts of the Kingdom to check on the situation of citizens across the country and the services offered to them.

In October last year, the King inaugurated the 16th Parliament’s second ordinary session, where he underscored the need to continue enhancing the democratic process to ensure a better future for all Jordanians and fulfil their ambitions of a new Jordan, based on the rule of law and founded on justice, equality, freedom and human rights.

At the opening of the World Economic Forum on the shores of the Dead Sea the same month, the Monarch said the region stands at the gates of the future, emphasising that dignity, opportunity, democracy, and peace and justice are all crucial to the future of the Arab world.

In the diplomatic field, the King continued his visits across the world to discuss means to boost bilateral ties between Jordan and these states and to push for efforts to realise peace between the Palestinians and the Israelis.

His travels over the past year took him to Palestine, Germany, the UK and the US, among other countries, where he met with world leaders to discuss ways to build cooperation and to push for serious efforts to achieve peace in the region and to uphold the Palestinian people’s right to an independent state on their national soil with East Jerusalem as its capital.

Among his efforts to help Jordan’s Arab neighbours, in September King Abdullah instructed the concerned authorities to dispatch a military field hospital to Libya to provide medical assistance to the Libyan people.

He also took responsibility for supporting 1,500 orphans under the age of 13 in Gaza, at a cost of $1.8 million annually.


* Jordan Times