Morocco 'supports Jordan's central role' regarding the Palestinian cause

Moroccan foreign minister Nasser Bourita is in Amman on an official visit

Jordan's King Abdullah and Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas wave during a reception ceremony in the West Bank city of Ramallah on August 7, 2017. Mohamad Torokman / Reuters

Jordan is central to solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Moroccan foreign minister Nasser Bourita said on Monday during a visit to Amman.

The two countries have good relations and Jordan opened last year a consulate in Morocco's Sahara region in support of Rabat's sovereignty over the region.

“We share with Jordan the same vision about the bilateral, regional and international issues,” Mr Bourita said, after meeting Jordanian foreign minister Ayman Safadi.

“Morocco supports Jordan’s central role regarding the Palestinian cause and the role of his majesty King Abdullah regarding the Islamic religious sites in the city of Jerusalem,” he said.

Mr Bourita was referring to Jordan's custodianship over Jerusalem's Al Aqsa Mosque, a claim that dates to the 1920s, when Palestinian notables gave Hussein bin Ali, the Sharif of Makkah and a great grandfather of Jordan's King Abdullah, custodianship over the site.

King Mohammed of Morocco “supports this role and always calls for co-ordinating with Jordan in everything concerning the Palestinian cause, especially the Islamic religious sites in this city,” Mr Bourita said.

“We work together with Jordan to support the Jerusalemites and in preserving the Arab-Islamic identity of Jerusalem,” he said.

King Abdullah and King Mohammad both came to power in 1999 and are of similar age.

“Our positions are the same regarding the Palestinian cause,” Mr Bourita said, pointing out the two countries' desire for a two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, with East Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state.

Jordan signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1996 and Morocco signed a normalisation deal with Israel in 2020.