AMMAN: Top US diplomat John Kerry mounted a diplomatic push yesterday to calm surging tensions in Jerusalem through talks in Amman with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Jordan’s king.
The meeting at King Abdullah II’s palace came hours after talks between the US secretary of state and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
“They will focus on ways to restore calm and de-escalate tensions in Jerusalem,” State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf said ahead of the talks in the Jordanian capital.
The flurry of diplomatic activity followed new clashes in east Jerusalem where Israeli police fired tear gas, sound bombs and rubber bullets to disperse Palestinian demonstrators.
Months-long unrest in annexed east Jerusalem has in recent days spread to the occupied West Bank and Arab communities across Israel, raising fears of a new Palestinian uprising.
Kerry and Abbas embraced and had a brief whispered exchange as they met at the Palestinian leader’s villa in Amman.
Much of the unrest in Jerusalem has been fuelled by Israeli moves to step up settlement activity in the city’s eastern sector and by religious tensions at the Al Aqsa compound, a site holy to both Muslims and Jews.
Earlier, a tense confrontation erupted in the city’s Issawiya neighbourhood as about 100 residents, including schoolchildren, tried to block a main road after police closed off several neighbourhood entrances with concrete blocks.
A 11-year-old Palestinian boy was wounded when a non-lethal round fired by Israeli police hit him between the eyes during clashes.
The Palestinians have also been infuriated by a far-right Jewish campaign for prayer rights at Al Aqsa, although Israel insists it has no plans to change the decades-old status quo.
Israel’s Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch said the authorities were on alert for more unrest, after several attacks in recent weeks by Palestinians wielding knives or ploughing cars into pedestrians.
“I believe there will still be terror attacks and other incidents in the near future,” he said.
Abbas’s spokesman said ahead of the meeting that the Palestinian leader was expected to tell Kerry of his growing concerns over Israel’s actions, particularly in Jerusalem.
“The Palestinian position will be made crystal clear: the Israeli violations are a red line and cannot be tolerated — especially with the tension and Israeli escalation in Al Aqsa and Jerusalem,” Nabil Abu Rudeina said.
Kerry also met King Abdullah, who called for Israel “to put an end to its unilateral action and repeated attacks against holy sites in Jerusalem, especially those targeting the Al Aqsa mosque compound,” his palace said.
The monarch said there was “no alternative to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state”, with east Jerusalem as its capital, in order to achieve peace.
In a move likely to further heighten tensions around Al Aqsa, Aharonovitch said late on Wednesday that he would reinstall metal detectors at the entrances along with facial-recognition technology.
“We’ll increase the supervision of people entering the compound, both Jews and Muslims,” he said.
But Sheikh Azzam Al Khatib, head of the Islamic Waqf which runs the compound, rejected the idea. “This is unacceptable to all Muslims. It cannot be installed,” he said.AFP
