Jordan's king on rare visit to Ramallah: Palestinians

RAMALLAH - 5 Aug 2017:Jordan's King Abdullah II is to meet Monday with Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas on his first visit in five years to the West Bank city of Ramallah, a Palestinian official said.

Mohammed Shtayyeh, a top official in the Fatah party of Abbas, told AFP on Saturday the two leaders would discuss efforts to revive the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, which has been at a standstill since 2014.

It will be the first visit since December 2012 by Abdullah -- whose country is custodian of Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem and which has a 2004 peace treaty with Israel -- to the Palestinian political capital in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Jordan intervened last month to help resolve a crisis over access to the ultra-sensitive Haram al-Sharif mosque compound in the Old City of Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, know to Jews as Temple Mount.