Jordan announced on Monday that its ambassador to Israel would return to his post in Tel Aviv three months after withdrawing the envoy in protest at Israeli restrictions on access to Jerusalem's Al Aqsa mosque. For the first time since making peace with its neighbour in 1994, Jordan announced in November it was pulling its envoy out of Israel following growing tensions over the sacred compound housing Al Aqsa mosque - the third holiest site in Islam. "We have asked Ambassador Walid Obeidat to return to Tel Aviv," government spokesman Mohammad al-Momani said. Al-Momani said that since then, Israel had taken significant steps to ease the friction and was allowing many more Muslims to access the site, which is also the holiest place in Judaism. "We noticed in the last period a significant improvement in Haram al-Sharif with numbers of worshippers reaching unprecedented levels," Momani said. Haram al-Sharif, known in Judaism as Temple Mount, is where the mosque is located. After Obeidat was recalled, Netanyahu made a rare visit to Jordan for tripartite talks with Abdullah and US Secretary of State John Kerry to contain the diplomatic fallout. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed the announcement in a statement issued by his office. "This is an important step which reflects the common interests of Israel and Jordan, above all stability, security and peace," Netanyahu said. Israel shut the Al Aqsa compound for one day last November after a far-right Israeli-American activist, who had spoken out against a ban on Jews praying at the ancient compound, was shot and seriously wounded in Jerusalem. Jordanian officials said the mosque complex was swiftly reopened after the personal intervention of King Abdullah, whose custodianship of the holy site was recognised in the 1994 peace treaty with Israel. The compound, which also houses the Dome of the Rock, the gold-plated shrine from where the Prophet Mohammad is said to have ascended to heaven, is run by several hundred Jordanian government employees. Momani said the ambassador would be returning to Israel later on Monday, adding that the government hoped the relative calm around the holy site would continue. Jordan blamed Israel for the tensions, saying it had not moved to restrain Israeli far-right nationalists who sought to overturn the Jewish prayer ban. "The message was delivered and reached the Israelis and on this basis we have asked our ambassador to go back to his work in the embassy this evening," Momani said. Jordan is one of only two Arab states to have made peace with Israel. But this has never won much domestic favour, given Israel's continued occupation of the neighbouring West Bank.
