Jordan announced on Monday that its ambassador to Israel would return to his post in Tel Aviv three months after being recalled over "violations" at Jerusalem's al-Aqsa mosque.
"We have asked Ambassador Walid Obeidat to return to Tel Aviv," government spokesman Mohammed al-Momani told AFP.
Amman recalled Obeidat on November 5 after police clashed with Palestinians inside the al-Aqsa compound, with Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh describing Israeli actions as "violations" and "way beyond the limits."
Jordan, where almost half the population of seven million is of Palestinian origin, has historical “custodianship” over the flashpoint site and other Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem.
Obeidat’s recall came after 47 Jordanian MPs signed a motion demanding that the 1994 peace treaty with Israel be annulled.
The recall had put enormous pressure on already frosty ties between Israel and Jordan, the only Arab country apart from Egypt to have a peace treaty with the Zionist state.
Tensions soared to a new level when in early November Israeli police entered “several meters” into the al-Aqsa mosque during clashes triggered by a vow by Zionist far-right groups to visit the holy site.
The Palestinian protesters were locked inside the mosque where they spent the night in protest to prevent Zionist hardliners from entering it.
The clashes wounded three people by rubber bullets and another 15 people, who sustained light injuries and had been treated at the scene.
After Obeidat's recall, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a rare visit to Jordan for tripartite talks with Jordan’s King Abdallah and US Secretary of State John Kerry to contain the diplomatic fallout.
Momani said Jordan's decision to return its envoy to Tel Aviv also comes after Amman noted that Israel has been allowing more Muslim worshipers to pray at al-Aqsa after having set limits.
"We noticed in the last period a significant improvement in Haram al-Sharif with numbers of worshipers reaching unprecedented levels," Momani said. Haram al-Sharif, known in
Judaism as Temple Mount, is where the mosque is located.
Judaism as Temple Mount, is where the mosque is located.
"Israel has received the message that holy sites in Jerusalem are a red line," a government official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
Despite pressure from Washington, Amman was reluctant to fill the position because of what officials at the time said was Israeli policies towards the conflict with the Palestinians.
The al-Aqsa compound, which lies in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem's Old City, is a flashpoint because of its significance to both Muslims and Jews. The mosque is considered to be Islam’s third holiest site, and Judaism’s holiest place as the location of the first and second Jewish temples.
Since Israel occupied East Jerusalem in 1967, an agreement with Jordan has maintained that Jewish prayer be allowed at the Western Wall plaza – built on the site of a Palestinian neighborhood of 800 that was destroyed immediately following the conquest – but not inside the al-Aqsa mosque compound itself.
Israeli forces have long restricted Palestinians’ access to the al-Aqsa compound based on age and gender, but have further prevented Muslim worshipers from entering the mosque for more than a month while facilitating the entrance for Zionist extremists.
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