“There is reality and there is rumors – there is no change and there will be no change in the status quo on the Temple Mount. The Holy of Holies is the Holy of Holies,” said the source in response to a question about Netanyahu’s visit to Jordan about a week and a half ago
Israel will not respond to the Jordanian request to increase the number of Waqf personnel on the Temple Mount. This is what a senior political official said in response to a question from the Rishon source website, regarding Jordanian demands from Israel during Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to King Abdullah in Rabat Ammon, about a week and a half ago.
According to the source, during the conversation with the King in his palace, “the Iranian issue always comes up, but the issue of regional peace came up even more strongly. The Prime Minister’s Office stated that the two leaders discussed regional issues, “with an emphasis on the strategic, security and economic cooperation between Israel and Jordan, which contributes to the stability of the region . Also, the two blessed the long-standing friendship and partnership between the State of Israel and the Kingdom of Jordan.”
During the meeting between the two leaders, several projects that Israel wants to launch were discussed. The most important of them is the railway connection between the Arabian Peninsula and the Haifa Bay”, that is, a railway line that will be able to transport goods from the port of Haifa to Saudi Arabia and vice versa. Also up for discussion was the acceleration of the climate project in the framework of which Jordan is supposed to supply solar energy to Israel, and Israel will supply it with water from a new dedicated desalination plant. We note that an agreement to speed up the project was signed during the climate conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, a few days after the Israeli elections.
After Netanyahu’s victory in the elections, King Abdullah called his blessing. Since Netanyahu’s re-election, Jordanian officials have expressed their concern about “changing the status quo on the Temple Mount”, a change that Netanyahu has promised will not happen. This is despite the fact that the Jordanians, for their part, have not maintained the status quo on the mountain in recent years. Among other things, they helped build a new mosque at the Gate of Mercy, and returned and raised demands from Israel to allow the increase in the number of Waqf people in the mountain.
The official confirmed that King Abdullah raised the issue of the Temple Mount during the conversation about a week and a half ago, and that the Israeli answer was that “there is reality and there is spin – there is no change and there will be no change in the status quo on the Temple Mount. The Holy of Holies is the Holy of Holies,” the official said regarding the mountain Regarding the ascension of National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, the Israeli side told the Jordanians that this is not about changing the status quo, as previous internal security ministers also ascended the mountain. During the visit, the Jordanians asked Netanyahu to increase the number of Waqf people on the mountain, but according to a political source – “there will be no such thing”.