Cablegate: Jordan Nominates Prince Zeid to Succeed Kofi Annan

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E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREL PINR UN IZ JO
SUBJECT: JORDAN NOMINATES PRINCE ZEID TO SUCCEED KOFI ANNAN

REF: AMMAN 1100

1. (U) The GOJ announced that on September 5 its UN mission
nominated Prince Zeid Bin Raad Al-Hussein, Jordan's Permanent
Representative to the UN since 2000, for the post of UN
Secretary General. Jordan also formally asked the Arab

SIPDIS
League to support Prince Zeid's candidacy.

2. (U) Jordan's official news agency PETRA called Zeid "a
distinguished diplomat and member of international
peacekeeping forces." Jordanian official media portrayed the
Prince as an advocate for international law and for causes of
special concern to the Muslim world, highlighting his
advocacy for a UN inquiry into the Srebrenica massacre, and
support for the establishment of the International Criminal
Court.

3. (U) After his nomination Prince Zeid, who was in Amman,
told reporters that "we believe there is considerable scope
to be given by the Security Council and the General Assembly
to a Muslim candidate who is familiar with the UN but not of
the UN."

4. (SBU) A brief biography of Prince Zeid follows:

Prince Zeid Bin Raad was born in Amman January 26, 1964. His
father, Prince Raad bin Zeid, became the most senior member
of Iraq's exiled royal family after his cousin, Faisal II,
was assassinated in 1958. The young Raad was vacationing
with his mother in Switzerland at the time of the coup, and
thus was one of the few Iraqi Hashemites to survive. Zeid's
father also served as Chamberlain in the court of the late
King Hussein. Neither Zeid nor his father asserts any claims
to the former Hashemite throne in Iraq. Prince Zeid's
mother, Majda Raad, is the former Margaretha Lind, born in
Sweden. King Abdullah's great-grandfather, King Abdullah I,
was the half-brother of Prince Zeid's grandfather. Zeid's
paternal grandmother descended from a notable Ottoman family
and was a regionally famed painter.

Prince Zeid was educated in Jordan, the U.S. and the United
Kingdom, and earned a Ph. D. in history at Cambridge. He
served as an assistant researcher in the economics department
of Jordan's Royal Scientific Society in the early 1980s and
received his commission as an officer in Jordan's desert
police - the Badia Corps - in 1989. Prince Zeid oversaw
tribal affairs for Badia Forces from 1989-1994 and served as
an UNPROFOR Political Officer in the former Yugoslavia from
1994 to 1996. From 1996 to 2000 the Prince worked as head of
the Non-official Labor Group for the War Criminals
Preparatory Committee for the International Court of Justice,
as head of the Peace Corps for the Non-Aligned Movement, and
as Vice President for the International Conference for the
Members' Agreement on Anti-Personnel Landmines in Mozambique.
After becoming Permrep in 2000, Zeid also served as head of
the advisory committee of UNIFEM. He is a member of the
advisory committee of the Institute for Historical Justice
and Reconciliation, a project of the Salzburg Seminar.
Prince Zeid Bin Raad is married to Princess Sarah Zeid (the
former Sarah Butler); they have a son and a daughter.
HALE

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