U.S. highlights Morocco's role in Mideast peace, urges economic talks with Israel
Morocco-USA, Politics, 10/29/1998

The U.S. assistant secretary of state for near eastern affairs hailed Morocco's role in bringing about peace in the Middle East.

Morocco played a vanguard role in the Middle-East peace process and King Hassan II was very committed and remains attached to this process, Martin Indyk said at a press briefing with Mideastern and North African reporters on the Wye Plantation peace accords concluded last week between Palestinians and Israelis.

Asked whether Washington asked some Arab states, like Morocco, to receive Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Indyk said, "Morocco played a vanguard role in the peace process and King Hassan II was committed and continues to be attached to the process."

"We will wait and see what the coming months will bring," the state department senior official added.

Indyk urged the Arab states to join the effort being exerted by the United States to reinvigorate the peace process, relaunch the Middle East and North Africa Economic Summit, resume the Syrian and Lebanese peace tracks and advance the normalization process.

The Middle-East/North Africa Economic Summit (MENA) held so far four editions in Casablanca (Morocco), Cairo (Egypt), Amman (Jordan) and Doha (Qatar). The conference seeks to lay down the foundation for economic and commercial cooperation between Arab states and Israel as a means to consolidate peace.

The last MENA summit last year was the subject of much controversy due to it being boycotted by most high level officials of the Arab states due to, what was described at the time by these officials as, the anti-peace policies of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Egypt were among the states that boycotted the conference because of the Israeli participation.

Previous Stories:
  President Clinton contacts Arab leaders over Palestinian-Israeli accord   (10/27/1998)
  US leading businessman says Morocco is a strong ally in peace and business   (10/17/1998)
  MENA conference opens in Doha tommorow   (11/15/1997)

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