• Al-Aqsa Mosque compound is revered by both Muslims and Jews in Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem.
• Growing numbers of Jews, mostly Israeli nationalists, have been secretly praying there.
• Jordan claimed last month that its envoy had been denied access to the location.

US President Joe Biden emphasized his support for the legal “status quo” of the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem, in a meeting with Jordan’s King Abdullah II at the White House.

Biden discussed the rising tensions surrounding the monument, which is revered by both Muslims and Jews in Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem, at a private lunch with the king and Crown Prince Hussein on Thursday.

He also reiterated “the fundamental necessity to protect the historic status quo.”

A long-standing arrangement permits non-Muslims to visit the location at particular hours but prohibits them from praying there. Jews refer to the complex as the Temple Mount, and Jordan was acknowledged as its keeper.

Growing numbers of Jews, mostly Israeli nationalists, have been secretly praying there in recent years, infuriating Palestinians.

This is true notwithstanding a ban on Jewish prayer within the compound imposed by orthodox Judaism.

Itamar Ben-Gvir, the national security minister in Israel’s new far-right government, visited the area in January, prompting a wave of international criticism.

Palestinians were alarmed by the prospect of any change in the long-term status of a place they saw as a national emblem.

Jordan, which oversees the Waqf Department, the sole agency in charge of overseeing sacred sites in Jerusalem, claimed last month that the Jordanian envoy had been denied access to the location.

Biden recognized Jordan’s “crucial role as the custodian of Muslim holy places in Jerusalem”, the White House said in a statement, and reaffirmed the close friendship between the US and the Hashemite Kingdom.

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He also reiterated his “strong support for a two-state solution” to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and thanked King Abdullah for “the role he and Jordan play as a force for stability in the Middle East”.

However, Biden did not express any serious criticism of the Israeli position, despite what observers regard as the new far-right government’s increasingly hostile policies towards Palestinians, and the escalating violence in the occupied West Bank.

Instead, according to media sources, the US has pressed the Palestinian Authority to take more action against Palestinian armed organizations, placing little focus on Israeli military raids, which have claimed the lives of at least 200 Palestinians in the past year.

In order to “reaffirm US commitment to Iraq,” Biden also spoke on the phone on Thursday with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, according to the White House.

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