The head of the Jordanian parliament, Atef Tarawneh, told the visiting Foreign Minister of Malta, George Villa, on Monday that the actions of Israel towards the Palestinians are no less dangerous than the actions of Islamic State.
According to the Jordanian news site Petra, Tarawneh urged the international community to pressure Israel to resume negotiations with the Palestinians and end its "repeated violations against the holy sites in Jerusalem" as well as construction of settlements.
Tarawneh's remarks mirror a statement made by Jordan’s King Abdullah, who equated Islamic extremism with “Zionist extremism” in remarks last Monday.
Abdullah made the comments during a meeting with Jordan’s president and members of the Lower House’s Democratic Gathering Bloc.
While saying that there was a civil war taking place between moderate and extremist camps within Islam, the Jordanian monarch added that at the same time, “there is Zionist extremism,” and that “stakeholders should acknowledge there is extremism in all camps,” The Jordan Times reported.
The king said Christians and Muslims in Jordan would work to “keep these threats away from our borders. We have to think together how to deal with the various challenges.
We are living in a new and changing world.”
Separately Jordan’s Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh met with his Norwegian counterpart, Borge Brende, last Monday and said that “Israeli violations” in Jerusalem were undermining the peace process.
Judeh warned that “such flagrant and aggressive attacks will drag the region into a religious conflict that will subvert the peace prospects and fuel extremism, terrorism and violence in the region,” Jordan’s Petra news agency reported.