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Reuters
CAIRO
The Arab League said on Thursday Israel's removal of new security measures that sparked days of violence at Jerusalem's Al Aqsa mosque had solved the immediate crisis but urged it to learn lessons by desisting from any such steps in future.
"Israel's withdrawal from its provocative and illegal actions solves the crisis they themselves created,"Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit said at an emergency meeting of Arab foreign ministers on Thursday.
"Dealing with Islamic sanctities with such imprudence poses a real threat of igniting a religious war, because no Muslim in the world accepts tarnishing Al Aqsa or its closure in the face of the worshippers or placing it under Israeli control,"Aboul Gheit said.
The compound is Islam's third most sacred site."I call on the occupying state to read the lessons of this crisis and the message it carries,"Aboul Gheit added.
Israel captured East Jerusalem, including the walled Old City and the Aqsa compound, in the 1967 Middle East war. It annexed the area and declared it part of its"indivisible capital", a move that has never been recognised internationally.
Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state, and are extremely sensitive to the presence of Israeli security forces in and around the Noble Sanctuary.
Israel's decision to withdraw the metal detectors and other security devices marked a significant climbdown by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing government.
It followed days of diplomatic effort by the United Nations, the involvement of US President Donald Trump's Middle East envoy and pressure from countries in the region including Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Jordan.
