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Jordan on Alert to Counter Israeli Attacks on Al-Aqsa

A protest in Haifa in support for Al-Aqsa Mosque (Wafa)
A protest in Haifa in support for Al-Aqsa Mosque (Wafa)
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Jordan on Alert to Counter Israeli Attacks on Al-Aqsa

A protest in Haifa in support for Al-Aqsa Mosque (Wafa)
A protest in Haifa in support for Al-Aqsa Mosque (Wafa)

Jordan’s Foreign Ministry summoned the Israeli Chargé d’Affaires on Monday to convey a message in protest of all Israeli provocative violations in the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem and to assert the need to respect worshipers’ right to practice their religious rites freely and without restrictions.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Haitham Abul Ful said the Chargé d'Affaires was handed a letter of protest to his government, including a demand to immediately cease Israeli violations and attempts to change the historical and legal status of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and to impose a temporal and spatial division of the holy compound, Petra News Agency reported.

The spokesman condemned the attacks on the mosque as a serious escalation and a violation of international law.

Meanwhile, 87 Jordanian deputies submitted on Monday a parliamentary memorandum demanding the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador from Amman, after the series of attacks carried out by the Israeli forces inside the Holy Mosque and the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

In response, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi announced that the government would convey a written warning to the Israeli embassy in Amman, to demand an immediate halt of the violations at the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Jordan’s King Abdullah II, who remained on a therapeutic trip outside the country following an urgent surgical intervention, held telephone conversations with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Deputy Supreme Commander of Armed Forces in the United Arab Emirates, Prince of Qatar Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, and President of the European Council, Charles Michel, in order to mobilize international efforts to stop all provocative actions against the historical and legal status on the holy sites.

For his part, Jordanian Prime Minister Bisher Al Khasawneh said that Israel “bears full responsibility for the consequences of the escalation, which undermines all efforts to maintain comprehensive calm.”

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Lebanon’s Jumblatt Visits Syria, Hoping for a Post-Assad Reset in Troubled Relations

Walid Jumblatt (C), the Druze former leader of Lebanon's Progressive Socialist Party (PSP), and his son and current party head Taymur Jumblatt (C-L) meet with Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (R) and interim prime minister Mohammad al-Bashir (L) during a visit to Damascus on December 22, 2024. (AFP)
Walid Jumblatt (C), the Druze former leader of Lebanon's Progressive Socialist Party (PSP), and his son and current party head Taymur Jumblatt (C-L) meet with Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (R) and interim prime minister Mohammad al-Bashir (L) during a visit to Damascus on December 22, 2024. (AFP)
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Lebanon’s Jumblatt Visits Syria, Hoping for a Post-Assad Reset in Troubled Relations

Walid Jumblatt (C), the Druze former leader of Lebanon's Progressive Socialist Party (PSP), and his son and current party head Taymur Jumblatt (C-L) meet with Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (R) and interim prime minister Mohammad al-Bashir (L) during a visit to Damascus on December 22, 2024. (AFP)
Walid Jumblatt (C), the Druze former leader of Lebanon's Progressive Socialist Party (PSP), and his son and current party head Taymur Jumblatt (C-L) meet with Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (R) and interim prime minister Mohammad al-Bashir (L) during a visit to Damascus on December 22, 2024. (AFP)

Former head of Lebanon’s Progressive Socialist Party (PSP), Druze leader Walid Jumblatt held talks on Sunday with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, whose group led the overthrow of Syria's President Bashar Assad, with both expressing hope for a new era in relations between their countries.

Jumblatt was a longtime critic of Syria's involvement in Lebanon and blamed Assad's father, former President Hafez Assad, for the assassination of his own father decades ago. He is the most prominent Lebanese politician to visit Syria since the Assad family's 54-year rule came to an end.

“We salute the Syrian people for their great victories and we salute you for your battle that you waged to get rid of oppression and tyranny that lasted over 50 years,” said Jumblatt.

He expressed hope that Lebanese-Syrian relations “will return to normal.”

Jumblatt's father, Kamal, was killed in 1977 in an ambush near a Syrian roadblock during Syria's military intervention in Lebanon's civil war. The younger Jumblatt was a critic of the Assads, though he briefly allied with them at one point to gain influence in Lebanon's ever-shifting political alignments.

“Syria was a source of concern and disturbance, and its interference in Lebanese affairs was negative,” al-Sharaa said, referring to the Assad government. “Syria will no longer be a case of negative interference in Lebanon," he said, pledging that it would respect Lebanese sovereignty.

Al-Sharaa also repeated longstanding allegations that Assad's government was behind the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, which was followed by other killings of prominent Lebanese critics of Assad.

Last year, the United Nations closed an international tribunal investigating the assassination after it convicted three members of Lebanon's Hezbollah — an ally of Assad — in absentia. Hezbollah denied involvement in the massive Feb. 14, 2005 bombing, which killed Hariri and 21 others.

“We hope that all those who committed crimes against the Lebanese will be held accountable, and that fair trials will be held for those who committed crimes against the Syrian people,” Jumblatt said.