AMMAN: Jordanian authorities have refused to allow a massive demonstration which the country’s Islamist groups planned to launch on Friday to protest the breaking into Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque by Israeli troops earlier this week, the Islamic Action Front (IAF) said on Wednesday.
“The Amman Gov. Samir Mobaydeen has rejected a request by some leaders to organize the demonstration in downtown Amman after Friday prayers to condemn the desecration of Al-Aqsa Mosque,” an IAF statement said.
Mobaydeen did not cite any reason for the refusal but said that his decision was based on “the authority accorded to him by the law,” it added.
The breaking into Al-Aqsa Mosque’s compound on Sunday by Israeli soldiers, reportedly to protect Jewish extremists while performing prayers there, had sparked a series of angry reactions in Jordan and elsewhere in Arab and Muslim countries.
At least 16 Palestinians were wounded and dozens were arrested during clashes with Israeli troops inside the shrine’s compound, according to Arab media.
The Jordanian Foreign Ministry summoned the Israeli charge d’affaires in Amman and handed him a strongly worded protest.
