‘Jordan committed to defending Jerusalem, peacemaking’

AMMAN — Deputising for His Majesty King Abdullah, HRH Prince Hassan attended the 5th Extraordinary Islamic Summit on Palestine and Jerusalem, which kicked off on Sunday in the Indonesian capital Jakarta.

In an address at the summit delivered by Prince Hassan, His Majesty said: "In Jordan, as part of our commitment to the Hashemite Custodianship of the Holy City's sites, we have addressed and will continue addressing the Israeli violations," adding: "We have succeeded in halting and aborting some of these assaults and we will relentlessly perform our duties until the liberation of East Jerusalem and its holy sites."

The Monarch also noted that Organisation of Islamic Cooperation's (OIC) summit in Jakarta was held to discuss the Israeli occupation forces violations and assaults in occupied Jerusalem which, he stressed, aim at imposing new realities by changing the Holy City's demography, Islamic and Arab identity and its legal status as a city under the Israeli occupation, the statement said.

The King continued that the Israeli assaults are globally condemned as they constitute a clear violation of the international law and the international humanitarian law as well as the international community's resolutions which, since 1967, have rejected Israel’s entire unilateral measures in East Jerusalem as legally and politically illegitimate, simply because they are carried out by an occupying force.

The King also explained that the international law stipulates Jordan's right to manage Jerusalem's religious affairs of all their deeply-rooted historic, cultural, humanitarian, organisational, institutional and archeological aspects.

"When we talk about Al Aqsa Mosque (Al Haram Al Sharif), we mean the entire 144,000sq.m.-compound which consists of the roofed mosque, the underground Al Musalla Al Marwani in addition to all historic and sacred yards and archaeological buildings inside the compound.”

Through its membership in the Security Council, the King noted, Jordan has succeeded in passing a document that clearly uses the term “Al Haram Al Sharif” after long years of absence from the council’s literature. The statement, he said, strongly denounced the rising tension in the Old City, especially in and around the mosque complex. The King added that Jordan has also worked with UNESCO, in cooperation with the Palestinians, to achieve considerable gains for the Jerusalem cause.

The King re-emphasised the centrality of the Palestinian cause among regional issues, reiterating that the absence of a just and lasting solution to the long-running Palestinian-Israeli conflict lies at the heart of the region’s woes, especially with terrorist and radical groups dominating large parts of neighbouring states.

He explained that resolving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict on the basis of the two-state solution that leads to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state within the pre-1967 lines with East Jerusalem as its capital will help in weakening radical groups and curbing their recruitment efforts.

“On this basis and for other considerations, achieving the two-state solution is a national Jordanian interest in addition to being a Palestinian and an international interest,” the King said.

The Monarch also called on Arab and Islamic countries to contribute by all possible means to international efforts aiming at resolving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, adding that the Israeli violations against Jerusalem’s holy sites cannot be addressed comprehensively and effectively without combined Islamic efforts. 

On the sidelines of the summit, Prince Hassan met with Indonesian President Joko Widodo and conveyed to him His Majesty’s keenness on enhancing Amman-Jakarta relations.

The prince also met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and discussed with him Jordanian efforts to end the Israeli violations in Jerusalem.

Prince Hassan also met with the OIC’s Iyad Ameen Madani and the Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus.