Amman intervenes to ease tension at E. Jerusalem's Aqsa

By Abdul Raouf Arnaout

JERUSALEM (AA) - The Jordanian government on Monday intervened to ease tensions at Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque complex after Israel imposed a raft of security measures at the flashpoint site, according to Jerusalem’s Jordan-run Authority for Religious Affairs.

According to a Monday statement issued by the authority, the Israeli measures included the arrest of a Palestinian mosque official, the deployment of Israeli police near the Al-Aqsa’s Al-Rahma Gate, and new restrictions on Palestinian mosque guards.

The statement goes on to explain, however, that the Jordanian authorities -- after consulting with their Israeli counterparts -- had secured the release of the arrested mosque official, Abdullah Abu Talib.

It also asserts that Israeli police had since been withdrawn from the Al-Rahma Gate and that the newly-imposed raft of restrictions on Al-Aqsa guards had been reversed.

Although Israel occupied East Jerusalem -- in which the Al-Aqsa Mosque is located -- in 1967, the Jordan-run authority remains responsible for overseeing the city’s Muslim and Christian holy sites.

In a related development, more than 100 extremist Jewish settlers forced their way into the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound on Monday, according to a statement issued by the authority.

The Palestinian territories have remained tense since the U.S. relocated its Israel embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem last month.

Occupied by Israel in 1967, East Jerusalem -- which the Palestinians want as the capital of a future Palestinian state -- remains at the heart of the decades-long Middle East conflict.