Saudi Press

Saudi Arabia and the world
Thursday, Oct 09, 2025

Jordan king: Israel must respect Muslim rights at Al-Aqsa

Jordan king: Israel must respect Muslim rights at Al-Aqsa

King Abdullah and Israeli defence minister Gantz meet before Ramadan, a year after tensions led to war in Gaza.

Jordan’s King Abdullah has called on Israel to respect Muslim rights at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, in a meeting with Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz in Amman.

The meeting on Tuesday appeared to be a joint effort to lower Israeli-Palestinian tensions as the holy month of Ramadan approaches.

The Royal Palace said that the king “stressed that maintaining the comprehensive calm requires respecting the right of Muslims to perform their religious rites in the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque”.

Gantz discussed “the measures that Israel is planning to take in order to enable freedom of prayer in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria”, an Israeli statement said, using Biblical names referring to the West Bank. Their talks focused on “regional and security challenges”, it added.

The statement did not elaborate on any steps Israel might take to facilitate worship in Jerusalem, the site of Al-Aqsa Mosque, a friction point where confrontations between Palestinians and Israeli forces could trigger a wider conflict.

The meeting followed a two-day summit in Israel attended by the foreign ministers of the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco, and Egypt, as well as US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken.

The Palestinians were not invited to the summit, despite the continuing Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories being a central feature of Arab-Israeli relations for the last 50 years.

While the Arab ministers convened in Israel, King Abdullah paid a rare visit on Monday to the occupied West Bank, where he held talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

The king’s high-profile visit, his first in nearly five years, and Jordan’s absence from the ministers’ meeting, were reminders that the Palestinian issue has not disappeared from the regional agenda.

The monarch’s visit was widely seen as an attempt to avert any flare-ups in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem before Ramadan, and the Easter and Passover holidays next month – a volatile period in the past.

Raids by Israeli security forces on the Al-Aqsa compound, as well as attacks on worshippers, and the attempted eviction of Palestinian families from Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood during last year’s Ramadan helped contribute to the eruption of Israel’s 11-day offensive on the Gaza Strip in May.

Citing security concerns, Israel has imposed age limits on Muslim worshippers at Al-Aqsa during periods of tension and restricted Palestinian travel to Jerusalem from the West Bank, territory that it captured, along with the eastern part of the holy city, in a 1967 war.

Israel and Jordan maintain close security ties and have diplomatic relations, but relations have soured in recent years because of tensions over Jerusalem’s holy sites, Israel’s expansion of West Bank settlements and the lack of any progress in the long-moribund peace process with the Palestinians.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog is expected to hold talks with King Abdullah in Jordan on Wednesday, official sources told Reuters on Tuesday.

Although Herzog paid a clandestine visit last year after taking office, his trip to Amman would be the first official state visit by an Israeli president since the two countries signed a landmark peace treaty in 1994. The Israeli presidency is a largely ceremonial position.


Newsletter

Related Articles

Saudi Press
0:00
0:00
Close
Wave of Complaints Against Apple Over iPhone 17 Pro’s Scratch Sensitivity
Syria Holds First Elections Since Fall of Assad
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
Nvidia and Abu Dhabi’s TII Launch First AI-&-Robotics Lab in the Middle East
UK, Canada, and Australia Officially Recognise Palestine in Historic Shift
New Eye Drops Show Promise in Replacing Reading Glasses for Presbyopia
Dubai Property Boom Shows Strain as Flippers Get Buyer’s Remorse
Top AI Researchers Are Heading Back to China as U.S. Struggles to Keep Pace
JWST Data Brings TRAPPIST-1e Closer to Earth-Like Habitability
UAE-US Stargate Project Poised to Make Abu Dhabi a Global AI Powerhouse
Trump and Starmer Clash Over UK Recognition of Palestinian State Amid State Visit
Saudi Arabia cracks down on music ‘lounges’ after conservative backlash
Saudi Arabia Signs ‘Strategic Mutual Defence’ Pact with Pakistan, Marking First Arab State to Gain Indirect Access to Nuclear Strike Capabilities in the Region
Sam Altman sells the 'Wedding Estate' in Hawaii for 49 million dollars
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Kuwait opens bidding for construction of three cities to ease housing crunch.
This Week in AI: Meta’s Superintelligence Push, xAI’s Ten Billion-Dollar Raise, Genesis AI’s Robotics Ambitions, Microsoft Restructuring, Amazon’s Million-Robot Milestone, and Google’s AlphaGenome Update
Indian Student Engineers Propose “Project REBIRTH” to Protect Aircraft from Crashes Using AI, Airbags and Smart Materials
Could AI Nursing Robots Help Healthcare Staffing Shortages?
Turkish authorities seize leading broadcaster amid fraud and tax investigation
Qatari prime minister says Netanyahu ‘killed any hope’ for Israeli hostages
Apple Introduces Ultra-Thin iPhone Air, Enhanced 17 Series and New Health-Focused Wearables
Big Oil Slashes Jobs and Investments Amid Prolonged Low Crude Prices
Social Media Access Curtailed in Turkey After CHP Calls for Rallies Following Police Blockade of Istanbul Headquarters
Did the Houthis disrupt the internet in the Middle East? Submarine cables cut in the Red Sea
Gold Could Reach Nearly $5,000 if Fed Independence Is Undermined, Goldman Sachs Warns
Uruguay, Colombia and Paraguay Secure Places at 2026 World Cup
Trump Administration Advances Plans to Rebrand Pentagon as Department of War Instead of the Fake Term Department of Defense
Tether Expands into Gold Sector with Profit-Driven Diversification
Trump’s New War – and the ‘Drug Tyrant’ Fearing Invasion: ‘1,200 Missiles Aimed at Us’
At the Parade in China: Laser Weapons, 'Eagle Strike,' and a Missile Capable of 'Striking Anywhere in the World'
Information Warfare in the Age of AI: How Language Models Become Targets and Tools
Israeli Airstrike in Yemen Kills Houthi Prime Minister
After the Shock of Defeat, Iranians Yearn for Change
YouTube Altered Content by Artificial Intelligence – Without Permission
Iran Faces Escalating Water Crisis as Protests Spread
More Than Half a Million Evacuated as Typhoon Kajiki Heads for Vietnam
HSBC Switzerland Ends Relationships with Over 1,000 Clients from Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Qatar, and Egypt
Sharia Law Made Legally Binding in Austria Despite Warnings Over 'Incompatible' Values
Dogfights in the Skies: Airbus on Track to Overtake Boeing and Claim Aviation Supremacy
Tim Cook Promises an AI Revolution at Apple: "One of the Most Significant Technologies of Our Generation"
Are AI Data Centres the Infrastructure of the Future or the Next Crisis?
Miles Worth Billions: How Airlines Generate Huge Profits
Zelenskyy Returns to White House Flanked by European Allies as Trump Pressures Land-Swap Deal with Putin
Beijing is moving into gold and other assets, diversifying away from the dollar
×