King Mohammed holds phone talks with Palestinian president

Morocco's King Mohammed VI held on Monday phone talks with Palestinian president Yasser Arafat.

After he congratulated the sovereign on Throne Day, the Palestinian president expressed gratefulness to the king for his efforts with the UN Security Council permanent member states and Islamic countries to prevent the profanation of Islamic holy sites in Al-Quds (Jerusalem).

Talks also covered the deterioration of the situation in the region.

On Saturday, the king, in his capacity as chairman of the Al-Quds Committee, urged the international community, the permanent members of the security council, the UN secretary general and Islamic countries to take urgent action to ban any act likely to harm Islam's holy shrines in Al-Quds (Jerusalem) and to spare the region a catastrophe. He also warned against the consequences of the provocative acts that groups of Israeli extremists were projecting to undertake to harm Islam's holy shrines, mainly Al-Aqsa mosque.

The statement was released on the eve of a ceremony projected by a small group of extreme nationalist Jews that wanted to lay down the cornerstone for a future Jewish temple on the Al-Aqsa mosque compound, an act viewed by the Arab-Islamic world and many world leaders as a provocative act that could inflame tensions in the whole region.

"Such an act will undoubtedly have serious consequences on the security situation in the whole region, including escalation of the violence and instability in the occupied Palestinian territories," the sovereign warned.

Al-Quds committee is a body set up by the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) to preserve the Arab-Islamic identity and heritage of the holy city.