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THE MOSQUE AT THE CENTER OF EVERYTHING
The day after Middle East Eye published a report that the United States and Israel are working to strip Jordan of its custodianship of Al-Aqsa Mosque, Iran’s Supreme Leader addressed the pilgrims gathered at Hajj. He did not need to reference the report. It had already made his argument for him.
The United States and Israel are “actively working” to strip Jordan of its historic custodianship of the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem, according to multiple US, Jordanian, Palestinian, Western, and Gulf Arab sources who spoke to Middle East Eye. Under the proposed arrangement, the Islamic Waqf, the Jordanian-backed body that has administered the compound for more than half a century, would be dissolved and replaced by a new entity established by the Israeli government. The site, Islam’s third holiest, would be redefined as a “multi-faith center.” Jewish access would be expanded to include organized large-group prayer. Israel would gain influence over the appointment of imams, preachers, and senior mosque officials, and oversight of Friday sermons. Two US officials confirmed that Washington had prepared a paper outlining this vision.
The proposal is being driven by Jared Kushner, who holds no official role in the administration, and US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, who has “repeatedly” urged Washington to follow through since taking his post. It has been shared with Bahrain, Egypt, Morocco, and the UAE. Saudi Arabia opposes it. A Gulf Arab source told MEE that Riyadh views the Hashemite custodianship as “a pillar of regional stability.” Mustafa Abu Sway, the deputy head of the Waqf council, was more direct: “The Hashemite Custodianship is a cornerstone for stability in the region. Undermining it is tantamount to undermining the very principles for peace.” A rotational Arab oversight model, in which Bahrain, Egypt, Morocco, and the UAE would cycle through administrative responsibility, has been floated as an alternative. Jordan was not part of the discussions.
After the report was published, a US official called the claims “totally false.” Jordan’s government reaffirmed its position is unchanged: the Hashemite custodianship is protected under the 1994 Wadi Araba peace treaty with Israel and under international agreements. Jordan’s Crown Prince Hussein bin Abdullah has built close ties with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in recent years. On Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa, those ties hold.
The Jordanian custodianship of Al-Aqsa traces to 1924, when the Hashemite family was granted the role after losing control of Mecca and Medina to the Al Saud family following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. It was formalized in the 1994 Wadi Araba peace treaty, the same treaty that ended the state of war between Jordan and Israel. It is the foundation of Jordan’s legitimacy in the Islamic world and the single most sensitive issue in Arab-Israeli relations. Al-Aqsa is the site from which the Prophet Muhammad is believed to have ascended to heaven. Any change to its governance is not a technocratic adjustment. It is a declaration about who controls the spiritual center of the Islamic world.
CORRECTION: Last night’s Evening Edition described Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei’s Tuesday address as an “Eid al-Adha address.” It was not. Khamenei spoke on the Day of Arafah, the holiest day of the Hajj pilgrimage and the day before Eid al-Adha. Eid al-Adha is today, Wednesday May 27. The Day of Arafah and Eid al-Adha are separate observances. We got it wrong and we are sorry.
Khamenei, in his Day of Arafah address on Tuesday, called on the nations and peoples of the region to resist the reshaping of the Middle East by Washington and its allies, and invited Islamic countries to cooperate in building a new regional order. He was speaking to pilgrims at Hajj as the MEE report was already in circulation.
🌍 TRANSLATOR’S NOTE: The reaction outside the United States to the MEE report was swift and carried a register American coverage has not matched. Across the Arab world and in Muslim-majority countries more broadly, the question is not whether the report is accurate — the US denial is treated with deep skepticism given the documented record of Huckabee’s statements on Jerusalem — but what it means that Washington is exploring this at all. Al-Aqsa is not a political symbol in the way Western audiences understand political symbols. It is a sacred site for 1.8 billion Muslims. Its governance is not an administrative detail. Raising it, even as a trial balloon, in the same week that Trump demanded Arab governments normalize with Israel, while Israeli forces are striking Lebanon on Eid, is not something any single headline catches.
Saudi Arabia’s opposition is the most significant piece of the story. Riyadh has consistently used its custodianship of Mecca and Medina as the foundation of its own Islamic legitimacy. The Hashemite custodianship of Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa has been a parallel structure the Saudis have respected, and in some ways depended on as a buffer. Any US move to dismantle it would place Saudi Arabia in an impossible position: accept it and lose standing in the Islamic world, or oppose it and directly confront Washington.
🇺🇸 What American readers need to know: According to multiple US, Jordanian, Palestinian, Western, and Gulf Arab sources cited by Middle East Eye, the Trump administration is working to end Jordan’s custodianship of Islam’s third holiest site, replace it with Israeli-controlled governance, and redefine the compound as a multi-faith center. Jordan says no. Saudi Arabia says no. A US official denies it. The proposal, if real, would tear up the 1994 Wadi Araba peace treaty, eliminate the foundation of Jordan’s legitimacy in the Islamic world, and hand Khamenei the single most powerful recruiting argument he could ask for — all while Washington is simultaneously asking Arab governments to normalize with Israel and negotiating a peace deal with Iran.
Sources: Middle East Eye (UK, independent, centre-left lean — primary report, multiple source categories, Huckabee role, Saudi opposition, rotational model); Caliber.Az (Azerbaijan, regional — Waqf replacement, Israeli government-linked body); Siasat Daily (India, confirmed this session — US denial, Jordan reaffirmation, 1994 treaty context)
ISRAEL PUSHES NORTH. THE MoU CLOCK KEEPS TICKING.
Israel is trying to cross the Litani River. That is the sentence the ceasefire was supposed to prevent.
On Tuesday, Israeli troops clashed with Hezbollah along the Litani in southern Lebanon, pushing farther north than Israeli forces have been since the US-brokered ceasefire took effect on April 16. According to AP and Euronews, Israeli forces crossed into territory north of the river in the Tyre district as part of what the IDF described as operations against Hezbollah infrastructure. The Litani has been the de facto boundary since the ceasefire. South of it, under Israeli control. North of it, nominally out of bounds. Netanyahu vowed to expand operations further and warned residents of Nabatieh to evacuate.
The internal Israeli debate over how far to push is fractious. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich demanded of Netanyahu, according to Channel 12, that Israel strike ten buildings in Beirut for every fiber optic drone Hezbollah fires. Netanyahu rejected it. An unnamed senior Israeli official told Channel 12 that Israel is currently “defenseless” against the drone threat — fiber optic drones, used extensively in Ukraine, that cannot be jammed because they are not radio-controlled. IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir pushed for greater operational freedom, saying forces could not operate with a “tweezer.” Beirut has so far been spared since the ceasefire began, but Israel’s moves north are generating fear in the capital. Lebanese residents are watching for the evacuation orders.
The timing puts Washington in an acute bind. Lebanon-Israel direct talks are scheduled for June 2-3 in Washington, six days away. Iran has been explicit: any final peace deal must include an end to the fighting in Lebanon, not just the Iran-US-Israel war. The MoU remains unsigned. The Iran delegation is back in Doha, and Iran’s frozen assets remain the central sticking point. The Soufan Center confirmed this morning that roughly $6 billion in Iranian assets held by the Qatar National Bank is the unresolved clause holding up the signature. Qatari officials traveled to Tehran specifically to negotiate its release. US forces remain in the region throughout the 60-day period even under the MoU’s terms, withdrawing only if a final deal is reached.
Hezbollah is not sitting still. It has carried out daily attacks on Israeli forces in southern Lebanon and northern Israel, including drone strikes on Misgav Am in the Galilee. The State Department confirmed that Hezbollah has ignored repeated ultimatums to stop firing. A US official, speaking anonymously, said Israel would not be expected to passively absorb attacks on its forces and civilians.
Iran wants Lebanon included in the ceasefire. Israel is escalating in Lebanon. The two are in direct tension, and neither Washington nor Tehran has publicly acknowledged it.
🌍 TRANSLATOR’S NOTE: The Litani River crossing is being read differently outside the United States than inside it. Inside, it is framed primarily as an Israeli security response to Hezbollah’s drone attacks. Outside, particularly in Lebanon, France, and across the Arab world, it is being read as Israel using the cover of the MoU negotiations, and Washington’s distraction, to establish new facts on the ground before any peace agreement locks the lines in place. That is not a new Israeli tactic. It is the pattern of every previous Israeli-Lebanese conflict: operations intensify before ceasefires, and the lines at ceasefire become the lines of control afterward.
France is paying particular attention. France has deep historical and diplomatic ties to Lebanon, a significant Lebanese diaspora, and French troops among the UNIFIL peacekeepers currently deployed in southern Lebanon. Every Israeli escalation that brings forces north of the Litani is a French diplomatic problem. Paris has been quiet this week. It will not stay quiet if Israeli forces reach Nabatieh.
🇺🇸 What American readers need to know: Israel is expanding its ground operations in Lebanon six days before Washington-brokered talks between Lebanon and Israel are scheduled to begin. Iran has said no final deal gets signed without an end to the Lebanon fighting. The deal is not signed. The fighting is escalating. Washington is simultaneously trying to broker the Iran MoU, the Lebanon ceasefire, the Abraham Accords, and, according to multiple sources cited by Middle East Eye, the governance of Al-Aqsa.
Sources: Euronews/AP (wire — Litani crossing, ground operations, Netanyahu vow, Nabatieh warning); PBS NewsHour/AP (wire — ceasefire status, Hezbollah attacks, State Department ultimatum, Beirut fear); Times of Israel (Israel, centre-right — Smotrich demand, Netanyahu rejection, defenseless quote, Zamir); Soufan Center (non-partisan think tank — $6 billion frozen assets, Qatar National Bank, MoU status); Washington Times/AP (wire — June 2-3 Washington talks, ceasefire nominal status)
THE DEAL THAT CHANGES THE MAP
On Tuesday in New Delhi, India and the United States signed a bilateral framework agreement on critical minerals and rare earth elements — the materials inside every phone, electric vehicle, wind turbine, weapons system, and AI data center on earth. The signatories were External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who was in New Delhi having just told reporters that an Iran deal could be signed “today.” According to BW Businessworld and Al Jazeera, the framework covers the full supply chain: mining, processing, recycling, investment, and long-term purchase agreements across semiconductors, clean energy, and defense technologies.
The strategic context is China. China controls most of the world’s rare earth processing capacity and recently imposed tighter export controls on the seventeen rare earth elements that underpin the permanent magnets used in EV motors, wind turbines, advanced weapons systems, and the hardware that runs AI. About 80 percent of the critical minerals on the US strategic list overlap with India’s, a degree of alignment that enables deep cooperation. India, recognizing its vulnerability, is planning a six-month strategic reserve of key minerals including lithium and cobalt and introduced “rare earth corridors” in four states in its most recent national budget.
The Quad dimension amplifies the bilateral deal. A multilateral framework released by the Indian foreign ministry details plans for Quad governments and private companies to mobilize up to $20 billion for mining, processing, and recycling projects across the Indo-Pacific. The framework is explicitly designed to build supply chains that are, in the words of both ministers, not vulnerable to “single-source monopolies.” Neither minister named China. Neither needed to.
Rubio’s framing connected the critical minerals agreement directly to broader US strategic priorities: “Vibrant innovation economies such as ours cannot afford to leave the foundational materials of these industries vulnerable to single-source monopolies that could deny us these things, not just in a time of conflict, but as a leverage point contrary to our sovereign national interests.” Jaishankar called it “very timely and critical.”
The deal builds on Pax Silica, a multilateral critical minerals framework India signed onto in February, and on the Critical Minerals Forum hosted by Washington in February. It is not a one-off transaction. It is the architecture of a supply chain that both governments intend to spend years building.
🌍 TRANSLATOR’S NOTE: The India-US critical minerals deal is being covered in the Indian press as a major strategic moment, the strongest evidence yet that New Delhi is prepared to align its long-term supply chain infrastructure with Washington’s, rather than hedging between the US and China as it has for decades. India’s traditional posture of strategic autonomy, inherited from its non-aligned movement history, has been under pressure since the 2020 Galwan Valley border clash with China killed twenty Indian soldiers. The critical minerals deal, signed at a Quad meeting, is the latest in a series of steps that move India closer to the US-led security architecture — without quite saying so.
China is watching closely. Beijing has already used rare earth export controls as diplomatic leverage against Japan, Australia, and the European Union at various points over the past decade. The India-US framework is explicitly designed to reduce that leverage. Whether it succeeds depends on whether the $20 billion in mobilized capital actually reaches the ground, which requires Indian regulatory approvals, environmental clearances, and the kind of long-term political commitment that has derailed previous mineral partnerships.
🇺🇸 What American readers need to know: The rare earth elements in your phone, your car, your defense systems, and the data centers running AI are almost entirely processed in China. China has already demonstrated it is willing to cut off access. On Tuesday, India and the US signed a framework to build an alternative. It will take years. It will require billions of dollars. And it is the single most consequential thing Rubio did this week that has nothing to do with Iran.
Sources: BW Businessworld (India, business press — full framework details, Jaishankar quote, Rubio quote, Quad context); Al Jazeera (Qatar, state-funded/editorially independent — $20 billion Quad framework, rare earth definition, China dominance); Republic World/AFP (wire — Hyderabad House signing, Pax Silica context); IAAN Express (India — 80% overlap, six-month reserves, rare earth corridors)
WAR DAY 87 | NUMBERS AT PUBLICATION
🇮🇷 Iran: 3,468 killed, 26,500+ injured (Iran Health Ministry, National Health, Defence and Interior Ministries via Al Jazeera tracker, May 20)
🇱🇧 Lebanon: 3,185 killed (Lebanese Health Ministry via WAFA, May 26)
🇮🇱 Israel: 26 killed, 7,791 injured (Al Jazeera tracker, May 20)
🇵🇸 Palestine: 4 killed (Al Jazeera tracker, May 20 — ongoing strikes not reflected; floor estimate only)
🇸🇾 Syria: 4 killed (Al Jazeera tracker, May 20)
🌍 Gulf states / Iraq: 146 killed in Iran-attributed attacks (Al Jazeera tracker, May 20 — Bahrain 3, Kuwait 7, Oman 3, Saudi Arabia 3, UAE 12, Iraq 118)
🇺🇸 US military: 13 killed, 381 injured (Al Jazeera tracker, May 20)
🛢️ Brent crude: $96.86/barrel (OilPrice.com, Wednesday morning)
⛽ US national gas average: $4.46/gallon (AAA, confirmed this session)
Sourcing note: All war casualty figures sourced to Al Jazeera live tracker, last updated May 20, 2026 at 08:45 GMT, citing Iran Health Ministry, National Health, Defence and Interior Ministries, except Lebanon which is updated to May 26 via WAFA/Lebanese Health Ministry. Palestine figure reflects tracker only and does not include casualties from recent strikes. Methodology differs between countries; figures should not be treated as directly comparable.
“Whenever the people are well informed, they can be trusted with their own government.” — Thomas Jefferson, 1789
