VZCZCXYZ0024
OO RUEHWEB

DE RUEHAM #6932 2501431
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 071431Z SEP 06
FM AMEMBASSY AMMAN
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 3935
INFO RUEHXK/ARAB ISRAELI COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS AMMAN 006932 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
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