Peres, Hassan May Meet on Peace Process

JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres and Morocco’s King Hassan II have been in contact about a possible meeting that “could be a great boost” to the Mideast peace process, Peres spokesman Uri Savir confirmed here late Monday.

Savir was responding to a statement by Hassan in an interview with French journalists in Rabat that he would be willing to meet Peres if the prime minister had a “serious” peace plan to discuss.

Hassan acted as an early intermediary in the Israeli-Egyptian contacts that ultimately led to the historic meeting at Camp David, Md., mediated by President Carter, between former Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and the late Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. Their talks produced the March, 1979, peace treaty between the two longtime adversaries.

‘Come and See Me’

“Mr. Shimon Peres has let me know that he would like to come and see me,” Hassan is quoted as saying in a text of the interview issued Monday by the official Moroccan news agency, MAP. “So I told him: with the greatest pleasure, but you and me are forbidden to do tourism. If you have something serious, come and see me.”

Hassan said he would be equally ready “to break off immediately with him and say he is a joker or a Utopian” if Peres made no substantive proposals.

“We confirm that there was an exchange of messages, and the prime minister would be glad to meet with the king,” spokesman Savir said Monday night.

Savir refused to say who initiated the exchange but emphasized in answer to a question that in addition to Hassan’s public statement, Peres had also received a private communication from the Moroccan monarch. “I cannot tell you why and what and when,” he added.

‘Sounds Serious’

Savir said that Hassan’s statement “sounds serious” and added that a meeting “could be a great boost” to the peace process. But it appeared from the spokesman’s remarks that Israel is awaiting a more formal approach from the Moroccan ruler.

“If there will be a more operative, direct invitation, the prime minister will respond favorably,” Savir said.

Hassan is an Arab moderate who chaired the most recent Arab League summit meeting in Casablanca last August. He has long urged his fellow Arabs to accept Israel’s existence as a fact of life.

Peres has met secretly with the Moroccan monarch at least twice previously, according to the prime minister’s biographer, Matti Golan. Those meetings took place in July, 1978 and March, 1981 in Morocco, Golan wrote.

A public meeting between Hassan and Peres at this juncture could lend important momentum to a revived Mideast peace process.

Jordan’s King Hussein and Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat agreed last Feb. 11 on a joint approach to peace talks with Israel. Peres has endorsed the idea of direct negotiations between Israel and a Jordanian-Palestinian delegation that does not include members of the PLO, which Israel considers to be strictly a terrorist organization.

With the United States acting as intermediary, the two sides have closed the gap between them throughout this year. But both Hussein and Peres are said to feel that time is running out.

Peres is believed to hope that if he can enlist the public support of King Hassan, it might strengthen the Jordanian king’s position within the Arab world and thus give him more freedom to open negotiations with Israel.