The Temple Mount. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

The US expects the security cameras Jordan and Israel agreed to set up at the Temple Mount to be live streamed and available to the public, State Department spokesman John Kirby said on Thursday.

“It is still our expectation that the video footage would be live streamed and available 24/7 to the public,” Kirby told a press briefing.

Kirby expressed the hope that the cameras will be installed “very, very soon, and be in use very, very soon.”

His comments came after reports that Jordanian King Abdullah II had slowed down the process of setting up cameras. Abdullah also told Jordanian state TV on Wednesday that there would be no camera allowed inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque, after Palestinians raised concerns Israel would use the monitoring to gather intelligence.

The Temple Mount, a sensitive religious site for both Muslims and Jews, became the focus of attention over the last several weeks as rumors surged that Israel wanted to change its decades old arrangement with Jordan to administer the area, with many Palestinians claiming Israel wanted to allow Jews the right to pray there.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu barred all MKs and ministers from visiting the Temple Mount site on October 7 amid a spate of apparently random terrorist attacks against Israelis in the Jerusalem area.

Secretary of State John Kerry announced on October 24 that Israel and Jordan had agreed to install security cameras, a Jordanian initiative that Israel applauded for its potential to defuse rumors that Israel wanted to change the status quo for Jewish worshipers.