DUBAI: Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said Tuesday that the country is “exerting every possible effort… to calm the situation in Jerusalem” to avoid being pushed in to an “abyss,” in an interview with CNN’s Becky Anderson.
Israel removed metal detectors from entrances to the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem’s Old City on Tuesday in favor of CCTV cameras, hoping to calm days of bloodshed sparked by the move, but Palestinians said the modified security measures were still unacceptable.
Israel installed the detectors at entry points to Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem after two police guards were fatally shot on July 14.
The spike in tensions and the deaths of three Israelis and four Palestinians in violence on Friday and Saturday raised international alarm.
A Jordan-run organization — Jerusalem Islamic Waqf — is responsible for overseeing the Jerusalem’s Islamic sites.
“What we need to do is find a solution that would end the escalation, diffuse the tension and then put us all on a track toward working rationally on ensuring peace and security in Jerusalem,” Safadi said.
“The solution that people will accept is one that will get us back to the status quo… with a view to ensuring … respect for the historic and legal status quo of the Al-Aqsa mosque at the Haram Al-Sharif.”
The foreign minister added that the issue of Jerusalem “has such a central position — not just to Jordanians, and Palestinians and Arabs — but to Muslims all over the world… No issue is as emotive and could be as explosive as Jerusalem.”
He told Anderson that Jordan was “exerting every possible effort… to calm the situation in Jerusalem because if we don’t, I think we are looking at what could be pushing us all deep into the abyss.”
— With Reuters