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24-05-2003 22:12:30
The Palestinian Authority has asked the Arab League to intervene with the United States to prevent Israel from authorizing Jews to pray on Jerusalem's mosque compound, its envoy here said.

Israeli Interior Security Minister Tzachi Hanegbi said in mid-May that Jews would soon be allowed to pray on the compound, which sits on top of Judaism's holiest shrine -- even without an accord with its Muslim guardians.

Mohammed Sobeih, who made the comments after meeting with League chief Amr Mussa, warned any such move would cause an "explosion of violence in the region."

A visit to the area by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on September 28, 2000, while he was still leader of the opposition, sparked bloody clashes and is often considered to have triggered the ongoing intifada, or Palestinian uprising.

Sobeih also called on other Arab and Islamic countries to lobby the United States to prevent the Israelis from opening the area.

Mussa, meanwhile, told the state MENA news agency after the meeting that he hoped reason would prevail in the budding controversy.

"If there are extremist voices in Israel, there are also reasonable voices. We hope that such voices can prevent the folly of the extremists," he said.

Hanegbi is from the radical branch of Sharon's right-wing Likud party, which is in a government coalition with two extreme-right nationalist religious parties.

The Waqf -- the Islamic trust running the site which is also the third holiest site in Islam -- considers the compound an exclusively Muslim site. Non-Muslims are theoretically allowed access but cannot organise collective prayers.

It has temporarily closed access to non-Muslims since the intifada erupted.



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