JORDAN WARNS OF TEMPLE MOUNT ESCALLATION
by Glen on 2001-07-29 07:50:43
Agency France-Presse reports: ‘Jordanian Foreign Minister Abdel Ilah Khatib on Saturday warned of a “dangerous escalation” if Jewish radicals went ahead with
plans to lay a symbolic cornerstone for Judaism’s third temple in Jerusalem. “This is considered an unjustified provocation for the Muslim nation and a violation of the
sacred character of Al-Haram Al-Sharif,” home to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, the third most revered spot in Islam, Khatib said.
Israel’s Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that a group of right-wing Jewish radicals could lay a symbolic first stone for raising Judaism’s third temple in Jerusalem’s
Old City on Sunday. But the court said they could not place it on Temple Mount, a holy place disputed by Muslims and Jews, which is home to Al-Aqsa Mosque
compound and the biblical site of the second Jewish temple demolished by the Romans in 70 AD.
Any attempt to lay a cornerstone inside the mosque’s compound “will lead to a dangerous escalation and Israel must bear responsibility for it,” Khatib said in a
statement carried by the official Jordanian news agency Petra. He said this would also violate the status of the Islamic holy places as well as international law. Khatib
appealed to the UN Security Council to block plans by the Temple Mount and Land of Israel Faithful Movement to erect a new house of worship. Petra said Jordan
will contact the countries with permanent membership in the Security Council — China, Britain, France, Russia and the United States — to explain the
consequences of such a move.
The court granted the fundamentalist Jewish group the right to lay the symbolic cornerstone at the Dung Gate, the southern entrance to the Jewish quarter of the
walled Old City. But it forbade such a ceremony within the Al-Aqsa mosque compound for fear of sparking clashes”‘