Palestinian Fatah movement leader confers with Moroccan party leaders

Member of the central committee of the Palestinian Fatah Movement, Hani El Hassan, conferred in Rabat Sunday and Monday with several Moroccan party leaders, who have all renewed Morocco's unfailing backing to the Palestinian cause.

Secretary general of the Istiqlal Party, Abbas El Fassi, who was accompanied by members of his party's presidency council, Mohamed Boucetta and M'hamed Douiri, told the Palestinian leader that the Palestinian issue and the liberation of Al-Quds (Jerusalem) are part of the Moroccan people's major causes.

He denounced the barbarous massacres perpetrated by Sharon and the siege imposed on President Yasser Arafat and on Palestinian cities and villages.

The same stand was voiced by assistant first secretary of the Socialist Union of Popular Forces (USFP), Mohammed El Yazghi, when he met Hani El Hassan on Monday.

El Yazghi who reiterated Morocco's firm support to the Palestinian cause pointed that Sharon is leading the region to a deadlock.

The Fatah leader made a detailed expos? on the tragic situation in the occupied Palestinian territories, in view of the Israeli military aggression against the unarmed Palestinian people. He also briefed his interlocutors on the Palestinian leadership's position vis-a-vis the diplomatic initiatives aiming to defuse tension in the occupied territories.

Hani El Hassan is expected to confer this Tuesday in Madrid with Israeli minister of foreign affairs, and leader of the Labor Party, Shimon Peres, under the aegis of the International Socialist (IS), chaired by Portuguese former Prime Minister, Antonio Guterres.

The meeting aims at encouraging "direct contacts," at least at the level of the parties, member to the IS, an official from the Portuguese Socialist Party said.