Rabat, Brussels, Tel Aviv to Sign Document to Consolidate Cooperation

Bourita receives Oliver Varhelyi in Rabat on Thursday. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Bourita receives Oliver Varhelyi in Rabat on Thursday. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
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Rabat, Brussels, Tel Aviv to Sign Document to Consolidate Cooperation

Bourita receives Oliver Varhelyi in Rabat on Thursday. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Bourita receives Oliver Varhelyi in Rabat on Thursday. (Asharq Al-Awsat)

Moroccan Foreign Affairs Minister Nasser Bourita said that Rabat, the European Commission, and Israel are preparing a document that they will sign to consolidate the tripartite cooperation and the regional dimension of their relations.

Morocco and the European Union seek to develop security cooperation in migration as well as engage in dialogue on mutual matters, Bourita said as he received the European Commissioner for Neighborhood and Enlargement, Oliver Varhelyi.

The Moroccan FM added that the reforms carried out by the Kingdom helped Morocco exit the gray list of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).

For his part, Varhelyi said that the EU wishes to contribute to Morocco-Israel cooperation to tackle the main challenges.

He further commended Morocco for being the first country to sign the Abraham Accords.

Morocco and the EU signed Thursday in Rabat, five cooperation programs worth 5.5 billion dirhams (nearly €500 million) to support the Kingdom's major reform projects.

The programs aim to back social protection, green transition, public administration reform, migration management, and financial inclusion.

The "KARAMA" program, with a budget of €130 million, is the second phase of the program to support social protection in Morocco funded by the EU.

Its main goal is to support the reform of the country's social protection system, by improving the quality and efficiency of basic social services and establishing a universal social protection system.

It will support specific measures to ensure equitable access to universal health coverage, family allowances, unemployment insurance, and pensions for the Moroccan population, and will strengthen social assistance and the rights of vulnerable people, including migrants, by providing them with appropriate care and protection.

As for the "AL ARD AL KHADRAA - GREEN LAND" program, which is part of the EU-Morocco Green Partnership, it is financed by €115 million and aims to support the green, inclusive, and innovative aspects of "Generation Green" and "Forests of Morocco".

The main goal is to improve the environmental and economic sustainability of agricultural and forestry activities while promoting the rural populations’ social and economic inclusion.

Similarly, the Public Administration Reform Support Program, financed to the tune of €50 million, aims to improve citizens' access to public services, organize government services more efficiently, and promote the dematerialization of administrative procedures.

This program aims to simplify and digitize administrative procedures for citizens and businesses, as well as to improve the transparency and quality of public services, and will help decentralize administrative services to bring them closer to citizens.

Speaking on this occasion, the Minister Delegate to the Minister of Economy and Finance, in charge of the Budget, Fouzi Lekjaa stressed that the signing of these agreements represents a major step in the economic, social, and environmental development of the Kingdom.

He also commended the EU's commitment to supporting the efforts of Morocco in its quest for sustainable and inclusive development, recalling that these projects reflect the quality and density of cooperation ties between the Kingdom and the EU, as well as the importance of community support for the country’s development efforts.

For his part, Varhelyi said that Morocco is and will remain a key partner for the EU.

He noted that in addition to these five programs, there is an ambitious program in support of Morocco's national strategy for migration and mobility.



UN Chief Urges Iran to Give up Nuclear Arms, Warns against Israeli Annexation of West Bank

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres addresses the audience during the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos on January 22, 2025. (AFP)
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres addresses the audience during the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos on January 22, 2025. (AFP)
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UN Chief Urges Iran to Give up Nuclear Arms, Warns against Israeli Annexation of West Bank

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres addresses the audience during the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos on January 22, 2025. (AFP)
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres addresses the audience during the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos on January 22, 2025. (AFP)

Iran must make a first step towards improving relations with countries in the region and the United States by making it clear it does not aim to develop nuclear weapons, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Wednesday.

He also said he hoped all parties in Gaza would realize they would benefit from a permanent truce that could open the path to negotiations over a two-state solution and urged countries to ease sanctions on Syria.

"The most relevant question is Iran and relations between Iran, Israel and the United States," Guterres said as he discussed the situation in the Middle East at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

"Here my hope is that the Iranians understand that it is important to once and for all make it clear that they will renounce to have nuclear weapons, at the same time that they engage constructively with the other countries of the region."

The UN nuclear watchdog chief, Rafael Grossi, touched on the same theme in Davos, saying Iran is "pressing the gas pedal" on its enrichment of uranium to near weapons grade.

Iran has always said its program is entirely peaceful and it has the right to enrich uranium to any level it wants.

Reflecting on the situation in Gaza, Guterres said the ceasefire there had so far been successful in allowing in aid to the enclave, but had a warning over any further future action.

"There is a possibility of Israel feeling emboldened by the military successes to think that this is the moment to do the annexation of the West Bank and to keep Gaza in a kind of a limbo situation," he said.

"That would be a total violation of international law ... and would mean there will never be peace in the Middle East."

SYRIA SANCTIONS

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not articulated a vision for Gaza's postwar future beyond insisting the Islamist group Hamas can play no role and stating that the Palestinian Authority – which partially administers the occupied West Bank - also cannot be trusted under its current leadership.

Israeli security forces raided the volatile West Bank city of Jenin on Tuesday in what Netanyahu called a "large-scale and significant military operation". Hamas called on Palestinians in the territory to escalate fighting against Israel.

The UN chief said he was more optimistic about Lebanon, where he believed the ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel was holding.

Guterres called on countries to ease their sanctions on Syria, to help the country transform after the ousting of Bashar al-Assad, while saying the new government still has to prove it will represent all minorities.

"We still have a strong risk of fragmentation and of extremism in at least parts of the Syrian territory," he said.

"It is in the interest of us all to engage to make things move in the direction of an inclusive form of governance and I think some gesture must be made in relation to the sanctions."