Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat left Gaza Tuesday for Morocco, where he is due to hold talks with King Mohammed VI as well as the US Middle East troubleshooter Dennis Ross.
Arafat aide Nabil Abu Rudeina said Arafat would inform the king of the situation in the occupied territories and the continued "Israeli aggressions."
He is due to meet Ross as part of "continued contacts between the Palestinian Authority and the US administration," Abu Rudeina added.
The talks come amid Israeli media reports of renewed efforts to forge a peace deal before US President Bill Clinton leaves office on January 20, even though violence continued to flare in the Palestinian territories.
King Mohammed is head of the Organization of the Islamic Conference's Al-Quds (Jerusalem) Committee, which was created in 1975 to work for the "liberation" of occupied east Jerusalem and the preservation of its Islamic heritage.
The fate of east Jerusalem and its holy sites, which Israel captured in war in 1967 and later annexed, has been the key stumbling block in efforts to make peace and end half a century of conflict.
In Rabat, Arafat is also due to take part in a meeting of an Arab committee to discuss ways of helping Palestinians thrown out of work by the Israel blockade on the territories since the eruption of the violence nearly 11 weeks ago -- GAZA CITY (AFP)
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
