JORDAN: Friend or Foe?

A thin, unsmiling man of 40 strode into the small chamber where Jordan's Parliament was waiting, walked to a huge, satin-covered royal chair topped by a crown, and began reading: "I swear by God Almighty to safeguard the provisions of the constitution and to be loyal to my country and its people." Prince Talal had returned to claim his throne.

Amman, which had been wrapped in dark mourning for Talal's murdered father, King Abdullah, once more came alive. Youngsters ran through the streets shouting, "Welcome, King Talal!" Crowds shouted their congratulations, and Bedouins from the desert fired rifles into the air. From the housetops, women set up the weird wail that among Arabs denotes joy.

A few days before, the new King had been a patient in a mental hospital near Geneva, undergoing insulin shock treatments for an unspecified mental disorder, while his younger brother, Prince Naif, ruled as Regent. Then, so goes the story in Amman, Talal began getting word of a plot at home. Naif, deciding he liked the feel of power, was conniving with two cabinet ministers and Jordan's chief justice to dissolve Parliament and proclaim himself King. He would be backed by the guns of the Arab Legion's Hashemite regiment, the King's bodyguard.

But Jordan's premier, Tewfik Pasha, quickly squashed the plot. The British quietly decided that Talal ought to take over from Naif. In betting on Talal, London took a calculated risk. Talal has been violently anti-British. In one of his fits of temper, he reportedly slapped the respected face of Glubb Pasha, British head of the Legion. Said he once: "If I am insane, it is with a hatred of the British."

But the British know that Talal is popular in the Arab world, that they would run into trouble if they tried to deny him Jordan's throne in favor of Naif. There are other signs that Talal, for his part, realizes he must have the British: without their subsidy and support, tiny, barren Jordan would become a fifth-rate country, easy prey for a powerful neighbor. The London Observer reported that Talal had recently signed a document assuring Britain that he would carry on his father's policies. When his plane stopped in Athens on the way from Switzerland, Talal told reporters he would continue "the same old friendly relations" his father had with the British.