JERUSALEM — The king of Morocco has rejected a request to meet with Israel's president because of the impasse in Mideast peacemaking, an aide to the Israeli statesman said Monday in a new diplomatic fallout from the deadlocked peace talks.
President Shimon Peres had asked to meet with King Mohammed VI on the sidelines of an upcoming international conference in Marrakech. But the monarch — citing the stalled talks — said the timing wasn't right, the aide said.
Peres, a Nobel peace laureate who was asked to speak at the World Economic Forum on the Middle East and North Africa next week, has decided not to attend because of the snub, said the aide.
The aide was not authorized to discuss the matter with the media and spoke on condition of anonymity. There was no immediate comment from the royal palace.
Israel and Morocco don't have diplomatic ties but their officials occasionally meet, and Israelis with Moroccan roots often travel there.
Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, launched early last month in Washington, have stalled over Israel's refusal to extend restrictions on Jewish settlement construction in the West Bank.
The Palestinians say they won't negotiate if Israel resumes construction on occupied lands that the Palestinians claim for their hoped-for state. They have given the U.S. until early November, after American midterm elections, to try to resolve the dispute.
President Barack Obama hopes to broker a peace agreement within one year, but the talks quickly degenerated into deadlock and finger-pointing after their resumption at the White House in early September.
Speaking to Israel TV, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said negotiations with Israel remain his preferred choice, but that he will consider other options if talks break down over the settlement issue. The rare interview with an Israeli station, broadcast late Sunday, appeared to be an attempt by Abbas to reach out to the Israeli public.
In a key gesture, Abbas said the Palestinians are ready to end all historic claims against Israel if a Palestinian state is established on lands captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war: the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has demanded that any peace agreement be considered a final "end to the conflict."
Once the Palestinians have established their state inside the 1967 borders, "there is another important thing to end, the conflict, and we are ready for that, to end the historic demands," Abbas said.
He did not elaborate on specifically which demands he meant, but traditionally Palestinians have demanded the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homelands inside what is now Israel. Israel believes refugees should be resettled in a future Palestine, and fears the Palestinians will press for refugee rights even after the creation of their state.
Abbas heads the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, while Gaza is controlled by the rival Hamas militant group.
Early Monday, Israeli troops arrested a Hamas lawmaker in the West Bank, part of an ongoing crackdown against the Islamic group.
The Israeli military said Hathem Qufishe was taken in for unspecified "security questioning."
Hamas official Mushir al-Masri in Gaza accused Israel of trying to "quash the legitimate representatives" of the Palestinian people.
Hamas seized control of Gaza in June 2007, creating dueling governments in Gaza and in the West Bank.
Qufishe had only recently been released from an Israeli prison after serving more than three years.
He was one of dozens of Hamas politicians arrested shortly after Israel soldier Sgt. Gilad Schalit was captured by Hamas-affiliated militants in Gaza in June 2006.
Front Page Features