AMMAN
Jordanian Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour on Sunday slammed the policies of Israel's government in occupied East Jerusalem, saying the latest developments in the holy city are "not isolated" and part of an Israeli plan to "change the facts on the ground."
"Jordan denounces the latest developments that took place in the holy city. These events are not isolated, but rather an Israel government plan to change the facts on the ground," the Jordanian premier told a press conference in Amman.
He went on to say that the escalation in the city is "more like an Israeli electoral game." Yet, he did not elaborate.
On Wednesday, Jordan, which oversees Jerusalem's holy sites in line with a 1994 peace treaty with Israel, recalled its ambassador from Israel to protest Israeli "violations" in East Jerusalem.
Jordan's UN mission is also preparing to lodge a complaint with the UN Security Council over Israeli "aggression" in the flashpoint mosque complex.
During the press conference, Ensour linked the ambassador's return to "the end of the crisis and the return of the situation in the holy sites to normal."
Speaking of calls to abolish the peace treaty with Israel, the premier said that the move would entail political and security consequences that should be carefully addressed first.
Tension has been running high in East Jerusalem since late last month, when Israel closed the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound for hours after an extremist rabbi was injured in a west Jerusalem shooting.
The unrest mounted further when Israeli forces killed a young Palestinian man suspected of shooting the rabbi in a raid on his East Jerusalem home.
Several Israeli parliamentarians have also forced their way into the mosque complex within the last few days, drawing the ire of Muslim worshippers and official condemnation from Arab and Muslim countries.
For Muslims, Al-Aqsa represents the world's third holiest site. Jews, for their part, refer to the area as the "Temple Mount," claiming it was the site of two Jewish temples in ancient times.
Israel occupied East Jerusalem during the 1967 Middle East War. It later annexed the holy city in 1980, claiming it as the capital of the self-proclaimed Jewish state – a move never recognized by the international community.
In September 2000, a visit to the site by controversial Israeli politician Ariel Sharon sparked what later became known as the "Second Intifada," a popular uprising against Israel's decades-long occupation in which thousands of Palestinians were killed.
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