Iran says OIC Jerusalem forum to follow Rabat meet

TEHRAN, Iran (Reuters) -- Iran, current chairman of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, said the OIC would hold talks on the future of Jerusalem after a Moslem meeting on the issue in Morocco later this month.

Palestinian President Yasser Arafat requested a special OIC meeting during a brief visit last week to Iran.

Arafat, who has vowed to declare a Palestinian state, has been trying to drum up Moslem support to strengthen his position in future negotiations with Israel and the United States after the failure of the Camp David summit.

"The OIC meeting will be after the (Jerusalem) meeting in Morocco and after its results are studied," foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told state television.

Foreign ministers from 15 Moslem countries and the Palestinian Authority will meet in Morocco on August 28 to discuss the future of Jerusalem.

The renewed attention Moslem organizations are paying to Jerusalem follow the collapse of the U.S.-sponsored summit last month between Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak. The summit failed mainly over the future status of Jerusalem.

Arafat has said he will declare an independent state after the September 13 deadline for the completion of final status talks with or without a peace deal.

The Jerusalem committee members are Bangladesh, Egypt, Guinea, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Mauritania, Morocco, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Syria and the Palestinian Authority.

Iran, which does not recognize Israel and opposes the Middle East peace process, has pushed separately for a Moslem bloc to pressure the Jewish state to cede Jerusalem, which is home to one of Islam's holiest shrines.

An Iranian envoy, Mohammad Sadre, has been touring the Middle East and Africa with a special message from President Mohammad Khatami.

"The recent developments in the Middle East have heightened both fears and hopes. Iran, as head of the OIC and a defender of the Palestinian cause, thinks it is necessary for the OIC to play an effective role," Asefi said.

Israel captured East Jerusalem from Jordan in 1967 and, in a move not recognized internationally, regards all of Jerusalem as its "united and eternal capital." The Palestinians want east Jerusalem as the capital of a future independent state.

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