Palestinian President Yasser Arafat arrived in Rabat early Monday to inform King Mohammed VI about the Camp David summit with Israel which ended in failure on July 25th, a Palestinian official told AFP.
"Morocco has always backed the Palestinian cause," said the diplomat who asked for anonymity.
Arafat told journalists upon his arrival that he "came to listen to the advice of King Mohammed VI concerning the Palestinian cause."
Rabat is the third leg of an Arab tour that has already taken Arafat to Saudi Arabia and Yemen.
The official SABA news agency said Arafat briefed Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh on the failure of Camp David talks “due to Israel's intransigence” and on measures currently being taken to declare a Palestinian state within the specified time period, reported Reuters.
“The Yemeni president renewed Yemen's support for the Palestinian cause and for the choices of the Palestinian people in deciding their fate and establishing an independent state on their national soil with Jerusalem as its capital,” a Yemeni official was quoted as saying.
He said Saleh blamed Israel for the failure of 15 days of peace talks at Camp David and called for Arab unity and coordination to support the Palestinians.
The agency said Arafat also briefed Saleh during the meeting on his talks with officials in Saudi Arabia and France.
The Palestinian ambassador to Riyadh, Mustafa al-Sheik, had earlier told Reuters that Arafat had received full support from Saudi Arabia.
“Saudi Arabia gave its full support to the Palestinian president and the Palestinian people in obtaining their legal rights and for a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital...and that there would be no concessions over Jerusalem,” Sheikh said.
Arafat is due to travel from Morocco to Tunisia and then end his tour of Arab countries in Syria, where he will meet President Bashar Assad, said AFP – (Several Sources)
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