Wasfi Tal Politician, diplomat and former Jordanian Prime Minister

Wasfi “Mustafa Wahbi” Salih Al-Mustafa Al-Tal (1919 – 28 November 1971) was a Jordanian politician and diplomat from the Al-Tal clan; residing in Irbid. He took over the prime ministership three times in Jordan. He formed his first government on January 28, 1962, to succeed the government of Bahjat al-Talhouni, who submitted the resignation of the government on January 27, 1962, and the ministry submitted its resignation on December 2, 1962, then the second government on February 14, 1965 and the third on October 28 October 1970 to November 28, 1971.

He was educated in Salt, then continued his education at the American University in Beirut in 1941. He then joined the British Army during the British Mandate of Palestine after training at a British-run military academy, and joined the irregular Arab Liberation Army to fight against Israel during the 1948 war.

He was very popular in Jordan and became a statesman and a key figure in Jordan and held many positions until he was assassinated in 1971 in Cairo by members of the Black September organization. She was the third prominent Jordanian political figure to be assassinated between 1951 and 1971. The first were King Abdullah I and Jordanian Prime Minister Hazza al-Majali.

His childhood and family
Wasfi al-Tal’s place and date of birth was a subject of controversy. Newspapers and official documents indicated that he was born in 1920 AD, but there are many who indicated that he was born on January 19, 1919, and there are two possibilities for his place of birth; He was either born in Irbid, or according to many people, he was born in the town of Arab Kiir in Maamoura al-Aziz, Eastern Anatolia region, and the town was at that time affiliated with the Kurdish lands in northern Iraq. Wasfi was born into an Irbid peasant family, his father is the poet Mustafa Wahbi al-Tal, nicknamed Arar, one of the stallions of contemporary Arab poetry, titled the poet of Jordan.
His mother, Munifa Ibrahim Baban, is of Iraqi Kurdish origin. Wasfi’s brothers are Saeed, Mu’in, Taha, Marioud, Shakir, Abdullah, Sayel, Wasfia, and Alia.
His father finished his studies in a dormitory school in Damascus and joined the education sector in Iraq and there he became acquainted with his mother. After Wasfi al-Tal’s birth, his father returned to Jordan to study. At that time, Wasfi spent his childhood in northern Iraq with his mother to return to his father’s city of Irbid in 1924 and remained at that time moving with his father.

Wasfi al-Tal belongs to the al-Tal clan, which lives in northern Jordan, especially in the city of Irbid. Zahir al-Omar al-Zaydani, who ruled Acre, Hauran, Tiberias, Tiberias and northern Jordan from the beginning of the eighteenth century until 1775, after which the Ottoman government fought them and ordered Ahmed Pasha al-Jazzar to exterminate the Zaydis from the Levant for fear of the extension and independence of the emirate of al-Zayadna. And his army, which committed the most heinous massacres in the killing of Zayadna and their associates.

Some of the humble achievements of the martyr Wasfi Al-Tal

1- The foundations of Jordan Post
2- The foundations of the University of Jordan
3- The foundations of Al-Hussein construction camps
4- He founded Al-Rai newspaper
5- Fundamentals of radio and television
6- Connect agricultural roads 3 meters and education to all villages in Jordan
7- Agriculture was something sacred to him, and he is a farmer of high caliber, and he is the author of the famous saying ((They fought the Levantine goat before Israel)) because it destroyed the trees
8- He fought Nasiriyah, and he was the only one who confronted it, especially during the Egyptian army’s dispatch to the war in Yemen, and its refusal to enter the 1967 war because he believed that Jordan would lose Jerusalem, so he was dismissed from the government and appointed head of the Royal Court
9- Burning all the intelligence files and opening a new political life in Jordan, especially Jordan, which was teeming with political movements and parties in that era
10- He returned all political refugees abroad, Egypt and Syria, and opened a new page for them in Jordan, and they assumed various positions in the country.
* His most important achievement: the return of the rule of law to Jordan during the events of September
his assassination
After the military clashes between the Jordanian authorities and the Palestine Liberation Organization ended in what was known as Black September. On November 28, 1971, a meeting of the League of Arab States was held in Cairo with Arab ministers and leaders, and Wasfi al-Tal was among those invited to attend. Wasfi al-Tal was assassinated that day, a few minutes after the meeting ended in Cairo in front of the Cairo Sheraton lobby. The director of the General Intelligence Department in Jordan at the time, Lieutenant-General Nazir Rashid, stated that he had warned Wasfi al-Tal that “the Nasserist movement is preparing to assassinate him. The assassination took place in the lobby of the Cairo Sheraton while Wasfi Al-Tal was entering the hotel, and when he reached the door, Izzat Rabah advanced and fired his pistol bullets into Wasfi Al-Tal’s body amid the astonishment of his guards and the Arab ministers who rushed to hide. And Ziad Al-Helou with their mastermind, Fakhri Al-Omari. The first accused, the mastermind of the operation and the leader of the group was the fugitive Fakhri Al-Omari, and from that day on, Fakhri Al-Omari was wanted by the Jordanian judicial system until his death in 1991.
Court:
The Egyptian authorities released the perpetrators of the operation without punishment or trial, in what can be considered evidence of the Nasser regime’s involvement. Most of the Arab countries were against Jordan in this case and there was a strong aversion to Wasfi Al-Tal from the Arab leaders, due to the events of Black September. The case was political, not criminal.
At the sentencing hearing and when the judges entered, the judge sat down and said: “After reviewing the papers, hearing the pleadings and deliberating the law, and after reviewing Articles 145 and 146 of the Legal Procedures Law, the court decided to release the accused.”
burial
Wasfi al-Tal’s body was transferred to Amman on November 28. He was buried in the royal cemetery after the funeral prayer for him at the Royal Mosque in Amman on November 29.