Queen's reign in Middle East left mixed legacy in the region

During Queen Elizabeth II's long reign, significant portions of the world rebelled against British dominance, yet after her passing, a few kingdoms that were imposed by the British are still in place in the Middle East.

They have endured decades of conflict and unrest and are now regarded as bulwarks of authoritarian stability.

Hereditary rulers were mostly unharmed when public upheavals broke out across the region a decade ago during what was known as the Arab Spring, toppling administrations with anti-colonial foundations.

Although the era of gunships and imperial pomp may be passed, the region still has strong financial and emotional ties to England. King, sultan, and emir students attend Sandhurst's Royal Military Academy. The richness of the Gulf Arab sovereign states has altered London's skyline.

King Abdullah II of Jordan has ties to Britain on both a personal and cultural level being the son of a British mother.

During World War I, Jordan's ruling Hashemites, who hail from the Arabian Peninsula and assert ancestry from the Prophet Muhammad, began the uprising against the Ottoman Empire.

They believed that their alliance with Britain during the war would contribute to establishing an independent Arab state throughout much of the Middle East. That's not how it turned out.

The Hashemites and the British royal family have, without a doubt, had very close ties, according to former Jordanian foreign minister Marwan Muasher.

However, there have been significant problems and tumultuous times in the partnership.

Jordan, a region of desert primarily inhabited by nomadic Bedouins, was granted to Abdullah I, the present king's great grandfather.

Another new nation, roughly modeled after historical Mesopotamia and composed of three independent Ottoman provinces, Iraq, was established and Faisal was given the crown.

Both kingdoms were established with British assistance. Jordan has a bureaucracy of the British type. God save the King was played at Faisal's coronation by a band in Iraq.

Abdullah was murdered by a Palestinian nationalist in Jerusalem in 1951, and Iraq's King Faisal II was overthrown and executed in a bloody coup in 1958. Both were buffeted by the surge of Arab nationalism that arose following World War II.

Hereditary monarchies were later overturned in Libya and Yemen. In 1952, Egyptian military forces overthrew that nation's British-backed monarchy. All were eventually succeeded by autocrats from within Jordan, many of whom were allied with the West.

King Abdullah II and Queen Rania are the current rulers of an Arab nation that is now regarded as an island of stability in a turbulent region. King Abdullah II is a native English speaker who would fit in at a British army club.

Its current portrayal of stability hides an economy that is dependent on foreign help, a conservative culture, and periodically visible popular unrest.

According to Jordanian political analyst Labib Kamhawi, King Abdullah II frequently flies to London to "seek guidance from the British on this or that topic. The British capital was the only place, Princess Haya, the king's half-sister, turned for legal protection from her ex-husband, the ruler of Dubai.

Following Queen Elizabeth's passing, Jordan's royal court proclaimed a week of mourning, praising her as an inspirational figure and a guiding light. Ordinary people in Jordan and the rest of the region responded less strongly.

The British government's 1917 Balfour proclamation, in which it backed the formation of a Jewish national home in Palestine, is often cited as the starting point for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

A well-known Palestinian journalist working in Jordan, Daoud Kuttab, claimed he would have anticipated that Elizabeth's passing would spark more discussion among Jordanians. But in 1952, she was crowned queen. He claimed it was difficult to hold her responsible for the Balfour statement.

Many Iraqis take satisfaction in the 1958 coup that toppled Faisal II, and many still bitterly remember the British invasion during World War II. The result was Saddam Hussein's cruel dictatorship and conflicts with his neighbors, but it also marked the beginning of decades of unrest. Saddam was deposed, but the US-led invasion of 2003 threw Iraq into instability, from which it has not yet recovered.