1. WHO ARE INVOLVED?
Jordan's Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi has accused Prince Hamzah bin Hussein, a younger half-brother of King Abdullah II, and others of planning to "undermine the security" of the country.
Prince Hamzah, the former crown prince, is now confined to his palace, while 14 to 16 people have been arrested. Among those under arrest are a former close aide to the royal family, Mr Bassem Awadallah, who was chief of the royal court in 2007-2008, and Mr Sharif Hassan bin Zaid, a former special envoy to Saudi Arabia.
2. WHAT WERE THEIR AIMS?
In a speech on April 4, Mr Safadi suggested that the Prince had been involved in a failed palace coup with foreign backing.
Mr Safadi said security services had monitored "contacts with foreign parties aiming to destabilise Jordan's security", including an alleged offer to spirit Prince Hamzah's wife out of the country.
But analysts said a coup seemed unlikely. "It is impossible to prepare a coup d'etat without the support of the main army units and the security and intelligence services. And all these forces are behind the King," said Mr Oraib Al-Rantawi, an analyst with the Al-Quds Centre for Political Studies.
None of those alleged to be involved "have the profile or the capacity to lead a coup", he added.
Academic Barah Mikail from St Louis University in Madrid said the word "destabilisation" was used to imply that "the people behind this attempt were looking" to capitalise on popular anger "to change the situation and so, by extension, move the King of Jordan and get him replaced by someone else".
Long-simmering tensions have grown in the cash-strapped country amid the global pandemic, which has added to the already serious unemployment situation. Two weeks ago, small protests broke out over the economic crisis.
3. WHAT ROLE DID PRINCE HAMZAH PLAY?
Mr Safadi said the Prince had liaised with Mr Awadallah, accusing him of "incitement and efforts to mobilise citizens against the state in a manner that threatens national security".
Prince Hamzah denied involvement in any plot against King Abdullah, although he did condemn the government as corrupt, incompetent and authoritarian.
The oldest son of King Hussein, who died in 1999, and his favourite wife, the US-born Queen Noor, Prince Hamzah, 41, is a graduate of the Harrow School in Britain and the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst. He attended Harvard University and has served in the Jordanian Armed Forces.
King Abdullah, who is 59 and also the product of elite US and British schools, named Prince Hamzah as crown prince in 1999 but stripped him of the title in 2004 and transferred it to his own son, Prince Hussein, now 26.
Mr Rantawi said Prince Hamzah "for some time had been singing from his own song sheet and had developed positions closer to the opposition than the official line".
"This was posing a problem because you cannot be a member of the royal family and at the same time a symbol for the opposition," he added.
Political analyst Labib Kamhawi said: "There are clear indications that Prince Hamzah was very popular among the youth and among the tribes which he used to visit regularly. This was seen by the court as a bid to capture the regime's base and endanger the regime's stability."
4. WHO COULD BE BEHIND THIS ABROAD?
Mr Safadi accused Mr Awadallah of unnamed and unspecified "foreign contacts" seeking to put in place "a wicked plot".
But this is impossible to verify, with the Jordanian authorities imposing a news blackout on reporting on the investigation.
Officially, regional neighbours were quick to swing behind King Abdullah and offer their support.
On Tuesday, Mr Safadi met Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan, who carried a message from Saudi Arabia's King Salman.
The US administration of President Joe Biden has expressed its total support for King Abdullah, while Israel called it an "internal affair".
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, NYTIMES
