Jordan will convene an emergency meeting of Arab and Muslim foreign ministers on Wednesday over what it describes as an “imminent” threat of an Israeli takeover of the Temple Mount, The Guardian reported.
Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi warned that attempts to alter the long-standing status quo at the Jerusalem holy site could ignite a religious conflict extending across the Muslim world.
“This is a constant threat, a dangerous threat that we’re trying to counter with every tool that we have possible,” Safadi told The Guardian.
“We warn that tampering with the status quo could trigger a religious conflict that will reverberate beyond Palestine and Jordan into the whole Muslim world.”
Safadi will host foreign ministers from Arab League states, as well as Turkey, Indonesia, Malaysia and Pakistan, at the emergency meeting.
“Jerusalem is a tinderbox,” he said. “We’re trying to explain the danger. We’re protesting legally. We are trying to create awareness of the imminent danger in the continuation of those Israeli measures.”
The meeting follows a series of visits to the Temple Mount by Jewish worshippers and right-wing Israeli politicians. Under the long-standing status quo, Muslims are permitted to pray at the compound, while non-Muslims may visit but are not allowed to conduct religious worship.
The site is known to Muslims as the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound and to Jews as the Temple Mount.
Jordanian officials were particularly alarmed by a July 23 visit involving more than 2,000 Israelis, many of them religious-right activists and settlers, led by National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, according to The Guardian.
Participants prayed and performed religious rituals across the compound, in what Jordanian officials described as the most serious violation of the status quo in modern history.
Amman has also raised concerns over reported efforts to recruit religious Jewish officers for a special police unit assigned to the Temple Mount.
Jordan is preparing for further tensions during the Jewish holidays in September, when larger numbers of Jewish visitors are expected at the site. The holidays will also fall during an Israeli election campaign in which right-wing parties are expected to compete for religious and nationalist voters.
Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi
(Photo: REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed)
Safadi said the international community must recognize the risks of any unilateral change at the compound.
Jordan’s Hashemite monarchy maintains custodianship over Muslim and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem, a role reaffirmed in the 1994 peace treaty between Israel and Jordan.
The Temple Mount has repeatedly served as a flashpoint in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and Jordanian officials fear that further challenges to the prayer arrangements could provoke widespread unrest.
The dispute comes amid broader tensions between Israel and Jordan over developments in the West Bank and Israeli water supplies to the kingdom.
Safadi also reiterated Jordan’s opposition to any attempt to forcibly displace Palestinians from the West Bank into Jordan.
“Our position is that this is a red line that we will not allow to be crossed,” he said. “We have made that known to everybody, that we will do whatever it takes to prevent any attempt at Israeli displacement of Palestinians into Jordan.”
“Not only will that be a violation of international law and of the right of the Palestinians to stay on their land, but that will also be a tremendous escalation.”