Palestinian-Israeli conflict: Morocco urges UN to support Roadmap

Moroccan state minister, Abbas El Fassi, exhorted in New York on Wednesday the United Nations to support the Roadmap to peace and put an end to Israeli practices in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Abbes El Fassi is member of a ministerial delegation representing the Organization of Islamic conference (OIC) which met UN secretary general, Kofi Annan.

El Fassi said the delegation called for the UN support to the "road map," drafted by the quartet made up of the UN, the US, the EU, and Russia, with as a main objective to create a Palestinian state by 2005.

The meeting, which is part of the contacts undertaken by the OIC with the quartet countries, aims to denounce Israel's destruction of Palestinian homes in Gaza and the assassination of Palestinian leaders.

The delegation, representing Morocco, Malaysia, Turkey, Senegal and Palestine, "urged Israel to put an end to its state terrorism, lift the blockade on the Palestinian people and respect the international humanitarian law," the Moroccan official said following the meeting with Annan.

The delegation had earlier similar contacts with the Irish and Russian foreign ministers and the head of the European council who voiced their attachment to the Roadmap and stressed the need to lower all obstacles hampering its implementation, he added.