Word: rabat
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...center of this diplomatic activity was Morocco, which has had close but secret relations with Israel since 1962. In the summer of 1976, while Sadat was visiting Rabat, King Hassan invited Yitzhak Rabin, then the Israeli Premier, to make a secret trip to Morocco. During the ensuing visit, Hassan urged Rabin to negotiate directly with the Egyptians, and said that he would try to arrange a meeting. Rabin, who is well known for his wariness and caution, was delighted. "There are many issues," he assured the King, "that can be solved in direct, face-to-face negotiations...
...their summit meeting near Rabat, Hassan urged Rabin to begin by meeting quietly with the Saudis, who bankroll the Egyptian economy. With Rabin's approval, Hassan then proceeded to arrange a rendezvous in Morocco between the Israeli Premier and Saudi Arabia's influential Crown Prince Fahd. Fahd agreed to the meeting, but a week before it was to take place, in early 1977, the Saudis canceled it without explanation...
Begin's angry outburst even spilled over into the Knesset cafeteria after the debate, where the Premier, according to numerous witnesses, cursed Peres in Russian and Polish. He also disclosed that Peres had met secretly with King Hassan II of Morocco in Rabat following the Sadat talks and "even dared to ask my permission to meet with [Jordan's] King Hussein." Labor Party officials seeking future meetings with Arab leaders, he warned, would not be issued passports. TIME has learned that Hussein, who was honeymooning in England, had requested a meeting with Peres through former King Constantine...
...P.L.O., whose panicky leaders last week worried whether they might end up as the losers in the new Middle East diplomatic moves. Although Sadat spoke forthrightly to the Knesset about Palestinian rights to a homeland, never once did he mention the P.L.O.-which Arab leaders, at their 1974 Rabat summit, had designated as the sole legitimate representative ofthe Palestinian people...
Privately, P.L.O. leaders conceded that without the united support of other Arab states, Sadat had the advantage. They feared that the Saudis and others might be prepared to jettison the Rabat agreement if a Geneva peace settlement could be worked out allowing some alternative arrangement involving Palestinians other than the P.L.O. One Fatah commander gloomily concluded that Egypt and Israel "have agreed to get rid of us by any means, without at least giving us back part of our land...