Morocco's senate president has postponed a visit to Israel due to a medical emergency, the Israeli parliament announced Wednesday.
The announcement came just a day before Enaam Mayara was scheduled to visit Israel's Knesset, or parliament, on a trip aimed at cementing relations between the two countries.
The Knesset issued a statement late Wednesday saying that Mayara had been hospitalized during a stop in neighboring Jordan. He was forced to reschedule his Israel trip and call off a visit earlier in the day to the Palestinian government in the West Bank, the statement said.
“I am sorry that because of a medical emergency, I am unable to come to the Knesset,” the statement quoted Mayara as saying. It gave no details on the nature of his illness but said he would return to Morocco.
“The connection between the kingdom of Morocco and the state of Israel is a shared interest of the two countries, and together we will deepen it,” he added.
Israel's Knesset speaker Amir Ohana, who visited Morocco earlier this year, said Mayara's visit was supposed to be a highlight of the new relations. He said Israel wished Mayara “a speedy and full recovery.”