Turkey's FM discusses tension over Al-Aqsa mosque with counterparts in Muslim world
On Friday (July 21), Turkey’s foreign minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu discussed with his Palestinian counterpart, Riyad al-Maliki, the recent clashes between Palestinians and Israeli security forces over the dispute regarding the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
As Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency reported, after holding a phone conversation with al-Maliki of Palestine, FM Çavuşoğlu also discussed the issue with foreign ministers of Jordan, Pakistan, and Uzbekistan on Saturday (July 22) as the tension in Jerusalem over Israel’s decision – a first of its kind for more than half of a century - to cancel Friday prayers at the mosque continued to escalate.
The ministry in Turkey also released a statement on July 21 ‘expressing worry and sorrow’ over the deadly clashed that broke out recently.
Asserting it is a ‘humanitarian and legal obligation for Israel to show respect for the sacredness and historic status of the Temple Mount in East Jerusalem, which has been occupied by Israel since 1967’, the ministry demanded for the restrictions and strict security measures in and around the compound of the Al-Aqsa Mosque to be lifted ‘immediately’. ‘This is vital to ensure a state of peacefulness’, the statement read.