Abbas confirms Jordan as custodian of Jerusalem holy sites

Sunday March 31 2013

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas. Photo/AFP

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas. Photo/AFP AFP




Outlining their coordination, the two sides stressed their "common goal to defending" Jerusalem and its sacred sites against attempts to Judaise the Holy City, particularly the flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound.



The agreement confirms "Jordan's role since the era of the late King Hussein," Abbas was quoted as saying in the statement.

"It consolidates what the two sides (Jordanians and Palestinians) have established decades ago."


But it is also Judaism's most sacred place of worship, venerated by Jews as Temple Mount, the site where King Herod's temple stood before it was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD.



Israel captured the mostly Arab eastern sector of the city from Jordan in the 1967 Six-Day War and later annexed it in a move never recognised internationally, but the Palestinians want east Jerusalem as capital of their future state.

Jordan, which has a 1994 peace treaty with Israel, administers the Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem through its ministry of Awqaf and religious affairs.