Israel's Acting Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben Ami said Tuesday that Palestinian Preventive Security Service chief, Jibril Rajoub, had told him last week that Likud leader Ariel Sharon's visit to Al-Aqsa Mosque would pose no problem as long as he did not enter the mosques, reported the Jerusalem Post newspaper.
Ben-Ami said he had spoken with Rajoub from Washington regarding the Sharon visit, and was told that "there was no reason for concern."
Israeli intelligence organizations understood the same, he added.
Rajoub, however, had warned last Wednesday in an interview with The Jerusalem Post that the visit would trigger riots similar to those following the 1996 opening of an exit to the Western Wall Tunnel alongside the holy mosque.
Wakf director Adnan Husseini has also insisted, too, warned police the Sharon visit would trigger major riots.
Ben Ami, in an appearance before the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Tuesday, denied the suggestion that police had improperly assessed the situation, and emphasized to the committee that the visit, which passed peacefully, had been authorized by Israel Police General Yehuda Wilk, according to the paper - Albawaba.com
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
