Biden reiterates support for Jordan’s custodianship of Al-Aqsa

WASHINGTON – US President Joe Biden today underlined his support for the legal “status quo” of Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa mosque compound in a meeting at the White House with Jordanian King Abdullah II.

Biden, the king and Crown Prince Hussein had a private lunch in which the US president “reaffirmed the close, enduring nature of the friendship between the United States and Jordan,” the White House said. They also both spoke with Iraq’s prime minister by phone.

Referring to growing tensions around the Al-Aqsa mosque – located on a site venerated both by Muslims and Jews inside Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem – Biden reaffirmed “the critical need to preserve the historic status quo.”