AMMAN: Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh on Monday summoned ambassadors of the permanent UN Security Council member countries and handed them messages to their governments urging their "immediate intervention" to force Israel to end its violations in East Jerusalem, according to a Foreign Ministry statement.
The Jordanian Foreign Ministry also summoned the Israeli ambassador in Amman and handed him a strongly-worded protest over its encroachments on Al-Aqsa Mosque and other Islamic and Christian holy sites in East Jerusalem.
Judeh asked the United States, France, Britain, Russia and China to "to step in immediately and shoulder their responsibilities by ensuring an end to Israel's violations and to put pressure on it to show real commitment to peace by creating the suitable atmosphere for relaunching negotiations," the Foreign Ministry statement said.
The minister cited Israel's permission of extremist Jews to pray at Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, excavations underneath and around Islam's third holiest mosque, the destruction of Palestinians' houses and forcing their inhabitants to leave the city, attempts to change its demography and continued building of settlements as serious violations that should be stopped.
Scores of Palestinians were reportedly wounded and detained by Israeli troops during clashes at Al-Aqsa Mosque compound on Sunday, when Israeli soldiers closed the area to allow fanatic Jews to perform prayers there.
"Jordan considers East Jerusalem as a red line," Judeh said, reminding the world that the holy city was captured from the Hashemite Kingdom in the 1967 Middle East war.
Under the peace pact which the two countries concluded in 1994, Israel agreed to allow Jordan to look after both the Islamic and Christian holy sites in East Jerusalem.
Judeh also talked on telephone with the European Union's foreign policy chief Javier Solana and the Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, whose country currently holds the EU presidency, calling for immediate steps on the part of the EU to ensure a cessation of the Israeli violations that he said represented a "direct threat" to peace efforts.
