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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan | |
| Israel urges Morocco-PA meeting | |
| 2007-07-03 | |
| Israel has relayed messages to Morocco's King Muhammad VI in recent weeks urging him to travel to Ramallah and meet Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas in order to increase Abbas's legitimacy, The Jerusalem Post has learned. Foreign Ministry director-general Aharon Abramovitch visited Morocco in May, and according to government officials there is an open and direct channel of communication between the two countries, even though there are no formal diplomatic ties. Diplomatic officials said that while both Israel and the US were trying to support Abbas and the emergency PA government, what was even more important for Abbas now was legitimacy in the Arab world. High-profile visits from Arab leaders could grant this legitimacy, but Israeli officials admitted that the chances of this were slim because of the concern in these countries of the reaction of Islamic radicals and Hamas supporters in their own countries. Government officials expressed disappointment that following the Hamas takeover of Gaza, Morocco and other "moderate" Arab regimes did not come out with a full embrace of Abbas but rather called for the reconstitution of a Hamas-Fatah unity government. Not only were Arab world leaders unlikely to visit Ramallah, but government officials said Monday that the assessment in Jerusalem was that the Egyptian and Jordanian foreign ministers, who in May announced their intention to come to Israel as representatives of the Arab League and discuss the Arab Peace Initiative, were unlikely to come until the situation in the Palestinian Authority cleared up. "The Arab League is hesitant to send anybody here when it is not clear who speaks for the Palestinians," one government official said. Foreign Ministry officials, however, said that Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni spoke last week to both Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit and Jordanian Foreign Minister Abdelelah al-Khatib and received assurances that they would indeed come to discuss the initiative, although no date was give
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| Posted by:lotp |