Israel, Morocco to Upgrade Ties and Open Embassies, Israeli FM Says

Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid and Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita meet in Rabat, Morocco August 11, 2021. (Reuters)
Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid and Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita meet in Rabat, Morocco August 11, 2021. (Reuters)
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Israel, Morocco to Upgrade Ties and Open Embassies, Israeli FM Says

Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid and Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita meet in Rabat, Morocco August 11, 2021. (Reuters)
Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid and Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita meet in Rabat, Morocco August 11, 2021. (Reuters)

Israel and Morocco plan to upgrade their restored diplomatic relations and open embassies within several months, Israel's foreign minister said during a visit to the North African kingdom on Thursday.

Morocco was one of four Arab countries - along with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Sudan - to move towards normalizing relations with Israel last year under US-engineered accords.

Those agreements also saw Washington recognize Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara.

"We are going to upgrade from liaison offices to embassies," Yair Lapid told a news conference.

In similar comments to Israeli reporters accompanying him on a two-day trip that began on Wednesday, Lapid was quoted as saying that he had agreed with his Moroccan counterpart Nasser Bourita that the embassies would open in two months' time.

There was no immediate confirmation of Lapid's remarks by Morocco.

Lapid's visit was the first by an Israeli foreign minister to Morocco since 2003, after the two countries agreed in December to resume diplomatic relations under a US-brokered deal.

Earlier on Thursday, Lapid inaugurated Israel's liaison office in Rabat and visited a synagogue in Casablanca.



Israeli Forces Kill 2 Palestinians Who Carried Out West Bank Bus Attack

Armed men from Hamas secure aid trucks that arrived the Gaza Strip, in Rafah, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025, days after a ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel went into effect. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Armed men from Hamas secure aid trucks that arrived the Gaza Strip, in Rafah, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025, days after a ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel went into effect. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
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Israeli Forces Kill 2 Palestinians Who Carried Out West Bank Bus Attack

Armed men from Hamas secure aid trucks that arrived the Gaza Strip, in Rafah, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025, days after a ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel went into effect. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Armed men from Hamas secure aid trucks that arrived the Gaza Strip, in Rafah, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025, days after a ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel went into effect. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Israeli forces have killed two Palestinians who carried out a deadly attack on a bus in the West Bank earlier this month.
The Israeli military said Thursday that the two men barricaded themselves in a structure in the West Bank village of Burqin and exchanged fire with Israeli troops before they were killed overnight. The army said a soldier was moderately wounded, The Associated Press said.
The military said Mohammed Nazzal and Katiba al-Shalabi were operatives with the Islamic Jihad group.
The Hamas group released a statement claiming the two men were members of its armed wing and praising the bus attack. Hamas and the smaller and more radical Islamic Jihad are allies that sometimes carry out attacks together.
The Jan. 6 attack on the bus carrying Israelis killed three people and wounded six others.
Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians want it to form the main part of their future state.