Oct 4, 2009, 21:12 GMT
Amman - The Jordanian foreign ministry on Sunday took diplomatic steps to protest Israel's closure of the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, summoning the ambassadors from Israel and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council.
At issue is Israel's decision to close access to the sacred Temple Mount to Muslims under 50 years old and visitors after a day of clashes near the Jerusalem site that is holy to Jews, Christians and Muslims alike.
Jerusalem police put extra security measures in place for East Jerusalem which will continue on Monday, when thousands of Jews are expected to congregate at the Western Wall before a religious holiday.
Jordan's foreign minister handed a strongly-worded protest to Israel's ambassador in Amman to condemn 'recurrent violations' in East Jerusalem, which the Jewish state captured from Jordan in the 1967 Middle East war, the official Petra news agency reported.
The ministry called 'all Israeli measures' in the holy city 'illegal' and said they violated 'Israel's commitments as an occupation power.'
Later, Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh summoned the five ambassadors - from Russia, the United States, China, France and Britain - to give them messages for their government urging their 'immediate intervention' to force Israel to end its violations in East Jerusalem, according to a foreign ministry statement.
'Jordan considers East Jerusalem a red line,' Judeh said.
Under the peace treaty which Jordan concluded with Israel in 1994, the Jewish state acknowledged the Hashemite Kingdom's right to look after the Islamic and Christian shrines in East Jerusalem, which is still considered by the United Nations an occupied territory.
Judeh asked the five permanent Security Council members to 'step in immediately and shoulder their responsibilities by ensuring an end to Israel's violations and to put pressure on it to show real commitment to peace by creating the suitable atmosphere for relaunching negotiations,' according to the ministry's statement.
Judeh also telephoned with the European Union's foreign policy chief Javier Solana and the Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, whose country currently holds the EU presidency, to urge an 'immediate move' on the part of the EU to ensure a cessation of the Israeli violations.
Judeh said Israel's moves represented a 'direct threat' to peace efforts. The ministry warned that they were 'an obstacle in the path' toward launching serious negotiations leading up to the two- state solution and 'the establishment of comprehensive peace in the region.'
Jordan called for an 'immediate halt' to alleged Israeli violations and for the release of detainees, including the staff members of the Islamic Endowments Department in Jerusalem.
The minister charged Israel with a series of violations, including its permission for extremist Jews to pray at al-Aqsa Mosque compound, its excavations underneath and around Islam's third holiest shrine, the destruction of Palestinians' houses and continued building of Jewish settlements in Palestinian areas. He charged that the forcing of Palestinians to leave the city was an attempt to change Jerusalem's demography.
According to reports in Israel, around 150 Muslims started throwing stones and bottles at the police on Sunday and three were arrested after the incident, in which one policemen and one reporter were lightly injured.
Jerusalem's senior Fatah official, Khatem Abed Al-Kadr, and Deputy leader of Israel's northern Islamic Movement, Sheikh Kemal Khativ, were also arrested on suspicion of inciting riots but were released in the afternoon. Police banned both of them from entering the Old City of Jerusalem for 15 days.
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