JORDAN. TIZIANA FABI/AFP/Getty Images
The kingdom of Jordan provided Canada with more than $700 million in humanitarian aid over the past year, but even in that time, King Abdullah II remained one of the richest men in the world. According to Forbes magazine, the king owns multiple property outside of Jordan, including a palace in Rome.
Recently, pictures emerged of a lavish new palace in Jordan, which, at 5.4 million euros, was reportedly funded by Canadian builders who built the Ottawa super hospital in conjunction with the EU-funded Canadian International University. The king’s construction empire is certainly not confined to the Jordanian capital of Amman, which he owns three times over. According to Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf, the king has a quarter-of-a-billion-dollar property portfolio.
Forbes said that according to the monarch’s 33-page list of assets, worth a total of more than $2 billion, the palace in Rome was one of the king’s main items of luxury, followed by property in Casablanca. The king also owns villas in Dublin, the U.K., as well as a number of other apartments in Paris and Vienna.
The king’s ultra-wealthy net worth – which the amErican estimated to be between $2.5 billion and $5 billion – is likely in part due to his long-running grudge against the King of Morocco, whose initials CENM to his CENOF. King Abdullah was formerly King Hussein, who was descended from an Ottoman sultanate. But King Abdullah broke relations with the Moroccan monarchy in 1994, and broke ties with his aunt, Queen Rania, and her family, and eventually claimed the title of King Abdullah II, by which time, he had access to royal funds.
Authoritarian Arab monarchies often inherit the “bloodline” of past sultans and kings, ensuring their youth can confidently assume any throne. Jordan’s King Abdullah is said to have inherited his wealth from his father King Hussein, who ruled the kingdom between 1971 and 2005. Ruled by King Hussein during those years, the country’s economy went into a tailspin as a result of an Arab Spring that spread through other Middle Eastern countries, eventually deposing President Hussein in 2005.