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Ammon News -

Prime Minister Bisher Khasawneh said on Monday that Jordan stands united and firmly on Jerusalem and its custodianship over the holy Muslim and Christian sites in the occupied city.

Addressing lawmakers during a Lower House session, the prime minister saluted Palestinians and employees of the Jordan-administered Jerusalem Waqf (endowments) religious authority, in resisting right-wing Israelis desecrating Al-Aqsa Mosque/ Haram Al Sharif compound under the protection of the occupation authority.

Safeguarding the holy shines and the Arab identity of Jerusalem is a noble task to which His Majesty King Abdullah dedicates all of Jordan's resources, based on an unwavering position that East Jerusalem is occupied land over which Palestinians have sovereignty, and Jordan is the custodian of its holy sites.

He pointed to a virtual meeting chaired by the King yesterday during which he directed the government to intensify diplomacy with regional countries and world powers to deter Israel from its provocations at the mosque.

The premier said Jordan had diplomatically engaged with all parties, including Israel, to maintain calm in Palestine and the West Bank and ensure no harm to Al-Aqsa Mosque.

"We saw on Saturday the most dangerous manifestations in attempts at the temporal and spatial division of Al-Aqsa Mosque/ Al-Haram Al-Sharif, which we confronted and will not allow it to happen, and will stand up to all such attempts with all our resources", he said, referring to an Israeli police attack on worshippers and guards.

He said ongoing Israeli attempts to alter the historical and legal status quo at Al-Aqsa Mosque / Al-Haram Al-Sharif and impose a temporal and spatial division are a "dangerous escalation and violation" of the international law and a breach of Israel's obligations as the occupying power.

Israel, he stressed, is fully responsible for any consequences of the escalation in Jerusalem, which undermines all efforts to maintain calm and prevent violence from spreading, which threatens security and peace not only in the West Bank or the holy Al-Aqsa Mosque, but peace in the entire world.

Khasawneh dismissed Israel's justification that police have the right to arrange visits by non-Muslims to the Al-Aqsa mosque complex, one of Islam's holiest shrines, stressing that organizing such visits is the sole right of the Waqf Administration under the existing historical and legal status in Jerusalem, which Israel is trying to change.

He cited a key provision of the historical and legal status quo that Muslims have the exclusive right to pray and worship at Al-Aqsa Mosque with all its area of 144 dunums.

The Prime Minister said that churches advocate the rules of peace and co-existence, which underline that Al-Aqsa Mosque is for Muslims alone, just as the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is for Christians alone, pointing out that Muslims have for centuries preserved the right of Jews to pray in their temples and synagogues.