Palestinian officials reported that President Mahmoud Abbas flew on Wednesday to Casablanca – Morocco, on his first official trip the the country after newspaper reports the city may host secret Israeli-Palestinian talks next month.
Abbas is slated to hold talks with the Moroccan king Mohammad, later on Wednesday before meeting with the Prime Minister Driss Jettou along with other top officials in Rabat.
Abbas is expected to remain in Morocco for three days, the officials added.
According to a newspaper in Morocco, Casablanca will hold secret talks between senior Israeli and Palestinian officials early in May in an attempt to revive the peace process which was completely stopped since the outbreak of the Al Aqsa Intifada in 2000.
Israeli officials were not available to comment on the report due to the Passover Jewish Holiday, Israeli online daily Haaretz reported.
Morocco played an important role in bringing Palestinian and Israeli leaders together in secret talks and negotiations before the reaching the now-stalled peace agreement signed early in the 1990s.
Senior diplomats in the Moroccan government reported that Abbas will also focus, during his talks with king Mohammad and other officials, on financial support to ease the the sever crisis in the Palestinian Authority.
It is worth mentioning that the United States and the European Union have cut direct aid to the Palestinian Authority, a step which burdened the P.A with about $1.3 billion of debt made it unable to pay salaries due to 140,000 employees.
