Mayor Elias Freij of Bethlehem proposed Sunday night that King Hassan of Morocco act as an intermediary between Israel, Jordan and the Palestinians to end the deadlock which has stalled the peace process.
Freij spoke at a reception given by Premier Shimon Peres for Johannes Rau, the Social Democratic Party (SPD) candidate for Chancellor in the next West German elections, who is visiting Israel. The Bethlehem Mayor, a leading Palestinian moderate, was invited by Peres.
His remarks were in response to a speech by Abba Eban, chairman of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Security Committee, who had blamed the Palestine Liberation Organization for the present stalemate.
King Hussein of Jordan announced last month that he has abandoned efforts with PLO chief Yasir Arafat to find a formula for Palestinian participation in peace talks with Israel because the word of the PLO leadership was unreliable.
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