The office of Prime Minister Naftali Bennett clarified Monday evening that there is no intention to increase Jordanian control of the Temple Mount or to undermine the status quo on the mount, following the recent demands made by Ra'am chairman MK Mansour Abbas.
"The publications as if there are any discussions about changing Israel's sovereignty on the Temple Mount are baseless," Bennett's office said, "This is out of the question. The status quo in Jerusalem will be maintained. Here, too, just like the spin about a year ago on the establishment of a consulate for Palestinians in Jerusalem, there is no basis for this."
It was reported last week that Jordan has submitted to the United States a document in which the Waqf director in Jordan presents a long list of sweeping claims regarding the arrangements around the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount.
Commentator Ehud Yaari reported in Channel 12 News that the main demand is to renew what they call the "historic status quo", which the Jordanians claim requires the transfer of responsibility for the Temple Mount, including in the security field, to the Waqf, so that Israeli police officers will not be allowed to ascend the mount even in the event of violence and riots at the site.
Additional demands include the transfer to the Waqf of the authority to authorize all visits by non-Muslims to the Temple Mount, while requiring the submission of a prior written request. Jordan is also demanding that the Waqf be given the authority to maintain dress codes for non-Muslims, to ban all prayer aids for non-Muslims at the site, to restrict groups of non-Muslim visitors to the Temple Mount to no more than five people, and to set tour routes of no more than 150 meters in each direction for non-Muslim visitors.