Jordan Warns Israel over E.Jerusalem Hotel Rooms

Jordan's King Abdullah II on Thursday warned Israel that building hotel rooms in annexed east Jerusalem would increase regional "tension and stability."

"Israel's continued policies and plans to build settlements and take unilateral measures in Palestinian territories, particularly Jerusalem, will hinder peace efforts and increase tension and instability in the region," a palace statement quoted the king as telling a U.S. congressional delegation.

"The international community has a responsibility to support peace efforts, resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, leading to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state... with east Jerusalem as its capital," said the king, whose country has a 1994 peace treaty with the Jewish state.

Israeli officials confirmed on Tuesday that Israel has approved a further stage in plans to build 1,100 new hotel rooms in a settlement neighborhood of annexed east Jerusalem.

The hotel rooms are slated for construction in Givat HaMatos, an as-yet unbuilt neighborhood on the southern flank of east Jerusalem, near the West Bank city of Bethlehem.