Arab and Islamic countries called on the UN Security Council to condemn the visit of Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir to the courtyard of the Al-Aqsa mosque in occupied East Jerusalem during a scheduled meeting on the “Palestinian question”. The Palestinian delegate to the United Nations, Ambassador Riyad Mansour, said: “What happened must not happen again. And he demanded guarantees that the ‘status quo will be respected’,” he told reporters at UN headquarters in New York, surrounded dozens of Arab and Muslim ambassadors: “It is said all over the world that the international community is deciding the fate of the two-state solution” between Israel and the Palestinians.
Mansour added: “The international community has a responsibility to decide on the preservation and protection of the historic status quo in Jerusalem and its Islamic and Christian sites.”
For his part, Jordanian Ambassador to the UN Mahmoud Dayfallah Hammoud described the Israeli minister’s “break-in” at Al-Aqsa Square as “an extremist act that could create a new cycle of violence.” “The Security Council must take its responsibility seriously and put an end to such attempts,” recalling that “Israel is committed to respecting the current legal and historical situation and international law.”
In his daily press statement, Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, echoed his aide’s statement that Guterres “calls on all parties to refrain from taking measures that could increase tensions in and around Jerusalem.” The United Nations reaffirmed “the importance of maintaining the status quo in holy places.
