Morocco announced today that a compromise solution has been reached between the Fez summit participants and Britain, The Moroccan Foreign Ministry said in Rabat that an Arab League delegation, led by King Hassan of Morocco and including a Palestinian representative, will visit London February 7 and apparently meet Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Foreign Secretary Francis Pym.
The Palestinian representative will be former Halhoul Mayor Mohamed Milhim who is not a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization and only a PLO sympathizer. Milhim was expelled by Israel from the West Bank two years ago.
An earlier Arab delegation, which was to include PLO spokesman Farouk Kaddoumi was told last November that Mrs. Thatcher refused to meet it. The seven-man delegation decided at the time to cancel its planned visit to London.
The Fez summit had appointed the delegation to visit the capitals of the five UN Security Council permanent members to explain the Arab position as defined at Fez. The PLO was represented during the delegation’s visits to Paris, Moscow and Peking. America refused to accept a Palestinian representative and London followed suit.
The rift between Britain and the Arab League broke into the open last week when Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar cancelled Pym’s forthcoming visit and hinted at economic sanctions. The Saudi Deputy Minister of the Interior, Bandar Ben Abdullah, in a letter to the London Times, urged other Arab countries to follow Saudi’s lead “and hit the Westerners where it hurts — in their pockets.”
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