Jordan Seeks Pope's Help Over Jerusalem

Jordanians seek pope’s help over Jerusalem

AMMAN: Jordan has sought assistance from Pope Benedict XVI to stop Israel’s “unilateral measures” in East Jerusalem, which the Jewish state captured in the 1967 Middle East war, an official statement said Thursday.

The request was made by Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh who met the pontiff at the Vatican on Wednesday and relayed to him a “verbal message” from King Abdallah.

“Jordan rejects the Israeli unilateral measures which seek to change the identity of the holy city and endanger the sacred Islamic and Christian places there,” Judeh was quoted as telling Benedict.

The Jordanian foreign minister also presented the pope with a “file detailing various Israeli measures and provocations in Jerusalem and the holy places there”.

Judeh called for an “unequivocal attitude by the world community for confronting the Israeli excavations that threaten the safety of the Islamic and Christian holy sites and the attempts which seek to change the city’s demographic structure through forcing its Arab inhabitants to emigrate,” the statement said.