Jordan-Israeli ties on the brink over obstruction of royal visit to holy shrine
King Abdullah II has had enough of Benyamin Netanyahu's provocations over custodianship over Al-Aqsa Mosque and has retaliated by scuttling the Israeli premier's so-called historic trip to the UAE when Israel botched his son's visit to Jerusalem. Now Jordan-Israel ties have reached a new low as Netanyahu battles for his political survival in next week's elections.
Almost a decade of the tumultuous relationship between Jordan’s King Abdullah II and Israel’s Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu finally boiled over last week when Amman scuttled what was to be a historic visit by the Israeli premier to the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
On March 10, Jordan’s Crown Prince Hussein had to cancel a pre-arranged trip at the last minute to East Jerusalem’s Al-Haram Al-Sharif (what Israel calls the Temple Mount) when Israel, according to Jordan, violated the visit’s protocols. Israel had claimed that the cancellation of the trip was the result of disagreements over security arrangements to protect the Jordanian royal, which Jordan had denied.
