Jordanians were reportedly shocked by television images of a hairless Hussein — who has had four of six planned chemotherapy treatments — meeting Foreign Minister Ariel Sharon in the United States last week.
A Jordanian source was quoted as saying that the pictures of the king without hair and mustache “are a message to the Jordanian people. We understand that it is a message. The king wants us to see him before it is too late. If he had any chance of recovery, he would never have dreamed of exposing himself in this way.”
Hussein’s brother, Crown Prince Hassan, is the heir apparent.