Abbas Explains Jordan-PA "Deal"

Further to my post yesterday, it has now been reported:

President Mahmoud Abbas signed a deal confirming Jordan's role as custodian of Jerusalem holy sites in response to leaked reports that Israel planned to end Amman's responsibility for the Al-Aqsa mosque [????], a Palestinian official said Monday.

"In this historic agreement, Abbas reiterated that the king is the custodian of holy sites in Jerusalem and that he has the right to exert all legal efforts to preserve them, especially Al-Aqsa mosque," the palace said in a statement.

Former minister of Jerusalem affairs, Hatim Abdul-Qadir, said...The deal gives King Abdullah enough space both politically and legally to prevent any Israeli attempt to divide the Al-Aqsa Mosque...although the deal reiterated the status-quo in place since 1924, it was signed Sunday amid concerns that Israel would use Palestine's acceptance as a non-member state of the UN to end Jordan's custodianship of the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

The agreement does not contradict the Palestinian Authority’s political custodianship of Jerusalem...

The Al-Aqsa compound, known to Muslims as Al-Haram Al-Sharif, is Islam's third holiest site after Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia, and it houses the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa mosques.  But it is also Judaism's most sacred place of worship, venerated by Jews as Temple Mount.

And WAFA reports

The Palestinian-Jordanian agreement on the status of the Muslim and Christian holy sites in occupied East Jerusalem signed on Sunday between President Mahmoud Abbas and Jordan’s King Abdullah was the focus of the three Palestinian Arabic dailies on Monday. The papers printed pictures of Abbas and Abdullah signing the agreement while giving details of the agreement’s text and reaction to it.

And adds

Minister of Waqf and Religious Affairs Mahmoud Habbash, who also attended the signing of the agreement, told WAFA that this agreement is for the coordination and corporation in the protection and care of al-Aqsa mosque and all the Islamic and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem.

He said that this agreement stresses the historical Jordanian role in protecting the holy sites in Jerusalem as well as stresses the Palestinian sovereignty of the Palestinian Territory, including east Jerusalem, the capital of the state of Palestine.

Let me point out that the Peace Treaty reads in the relevant section
  

Israel respects the present special role of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in Muslim Holy shrines in Jerusalem. When negotiations on the permanent status will take place, Israel will give high priority to the Jordanian historic role in these shrines.  - Article 9

The year "1924" quoted above was before there was a "Jordan" and the Article speaks of the "present special role". 

But finally, we have a recognition that the site is also a Jewish holy site.


____________


UPDATE

Hizb ut-Tahrir attacks agreement between Jordan and the Palestinian Authority because it does not liberate Jerusalem... the defense agreement on Jerusalem and the holy sites which was signed by the King of Jordan's King Abdullah II and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas...is only permits the king to pursue a policy of negligence in Jerusalem and Palestine in international forums for the unjust support of the occupation of the Jews, rather than exposing the Jordanian regime to hand him over to the West Bank to the Jews, and his failure to make any real effort to move armies, including Army Jordan eager for jihad towards Palestine to liberate them. According to the statement

^