King Abdullah pledges support for Palestinians in meeting with Mahmoud Abbas

Jordan's monarch says Muslims have a duty to defend against Israeli actions in Jerusalem

King Abdullah (R) and Mahmoud Abbas meeting in Amman last year. They held a similar meeting at the weekend. AFP

Jordan's King Abdullah told Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas that “we're forever with you” at a meeting in Amman on Sunday and said Muslims had a duty to deter Israeli "escalations" in Jerusalem.

“You will triumph against all the challenges in front of you,” Jordan's official Petra news agency quoted the king as saying.

The king met Mr Abbas and Palestinian religious figures in charge of shrines in Jerusalem at a palace on the outskirts of Amman.

The meeting was attended by Jerusalem's mufti Mohammad Hussein, Mohammad Al Khatib, head of the Jerusalem religious endowments, known as the waqf, and members of the Christian clergy in the city.

King Abdullah stressed that "it is the duty of every Muslim to deter Israeli escalations against Islamic and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem", Petra reported.

The meeting came after Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem went on strike on Sunday in protest over two fatal shootings by Israeli forces.

Troops in the West Bank shot dead a Palestinian man on Saturday after what they said was a ramming attack that injured three soldiers. On Friday night, another man was shot dead by Israeli police near Al Aqsa compound in East Jerusalem.

Jordan and Israel signed a peace treaty in 1994.

Jordanian officials worry that increased Israeli pressure on the Palestinians could lead to another wave of refugees to Jordan, after influxes in the 1940s and 1967.

This could strain the social balance in the kingdom, where tribes underpin the security forces and the bureaucracy.

In reference to remarks by an Israeli minister last month, the king “called on the international community to counter the exclusionist and racist statements made recently by some Israeli officials".