WASHINGTON: Morocco became the fourth Arab nation this year to normalize relations with Israel as President Donald Trump in turn fulfilled a decades-old goal of Morocco by backing its contested sovereignty in Western Sahara.
With barely a month left in his presidency, Trump, a staunch backer of Israel, tweeted that Morocco and the Jewish state had agreed to ties in a “massive breakthrough for peace in the Middle East!”
The White House said that Trump also “recognised Moroccan sovereignty over the entire Western Sahara territory,” infuriating the Algerian-backed Polisario Front which controls about one-fifth of the vast, arid region.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Morocco and Israel would reopen liaison offices in Tel Aviv and Rabat, which Morocco closed in 2000 at the start of the second Palestinian uprising, and establish full diplomatic relations “as rapidly as possible.”
Morocco, which has quietly let in Israeli travelers in recent years, will also permit direct flights with Israel, Netanyahu said.
“I’ve always believed that this historic day would come,” Netanyahu said in a televised address on the first day of the Hanukkah holiday.
Morocco confirmed a deal with Israel but, like previous Arab countries, was guarded in its language.
The palace statement said that King Mohammed VI in a telephone call with Trump agreed to diplomatic relations with Israel “with minimal delay.”
A senior Moroccan foreign ministry official, in a briefing in Rabat, characterised the move not as recognition of Israel but as a “normalisation” that restores past relations.
Trump, due to leave office on January 20, despite unprecedented and so far failed attempts to overturn the election result, has racked up historic advances since September in bringing Israel and Arab states together.
Morocco follows the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Sudan in what the Trump administration calls the Abraham Accords.
The push has shattered once solid Arab solidarity behind the Palestinians’ struggle for statehood, with Gulf Arabs seeing common cause with Netanyahu and Trump on confronting Iran.
Previously, only neighbouring Egypt and Jordan had made peace with Israel and, until a few months ago, many doubted that other Arab nations would recognize Israel so long as Netanyahu resists concessions to the Palestinians.
In Morocco, the palace said the king spoke by telephone with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas and assured him that he “would never relinquish his role in defending the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people.”
Hazem Qassem, spokesman for the Islamist group Hamas that controls the Gaza Strip, condemned Morocco’s move as a “political sin” that would encourage Israeli occupation.
