Israel and Morocco agreed on Thursday to normalize relations in a deal brokered with US help, making Morocco the fourth Arab country to set aside hostilities with Israel in the past four months.
It joins the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Sudan in beginning to forge deals with Israel, driven in part by US-led efforts to present a united front against Iran and roll back Tehran’s regional influence.
In a departure from longstanding US policy, President Donald Trump agreed as part of the deal to recognize Morocco’s sovereignty over the Western Sahara, a desert region where a decades-old territorial dispute has pitted Morocco against the Polisario Front, a breakaway movement that seeks to establish an independent state in the territory.
President-elect Joe Biden, due to succeed Trump on Jan. 20, will face a decision whether to accept the US deal on the Western Sahara, which no other Western nation has done.
While Biden is expected to move US foreign policy away from Trump’s “America First” posture, the Democrat has indicated he will continue the pursuit of what Trump calls “the Abraham Accords” between Israel and Arab and Muslim nations.
Trump sealed the Israel-Morocco accord in a phone call with Morocco’s King Mohammed VI on Thursday, the White House said.
“Another HISTORIC breakthrough today! Our two GREAT friends Israel and the Kingdom of Morocco have agreed to full diplomatic relations – a massive breakthrough for peace in the Middle East!” Trump tweeted.
King Mohammed told Trump that Morocco intends to facilitate direct flights for Israeli tourists to and from Morocco, according to a statement from Morocco’s royal court.
“This will be a very warm peace. Peace has never - the light of peace on this Hanukkah day has never - shone brighter than today in the Middle East,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement, a reference to a Jewish eight-day holiday starting on Thursday night.
Palestinians have been critical of the normalization deals, saying Arab countries have set back the cause of peace by abandoning a longstanding demand that Israel give up land for a Palestinian state before it can receive recognition.
Later, in a telephone call with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, King Mohammed said Morocco stands by two-state solution to Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi wrote on Twitter on Thursday that he values the important step of normalizing ties between Morocco and Israel.
Full diplomatic relations
Under the agreement, Morocco will establish full diplomatic relations and resume official contacts with Israel.
“They are going to reopen their liaison offices in Rabat and Tel Aviv immediately with the intention to open embassies. And they are going to promote economic cooperation between Israeli and Moroccan companies,” White House senior adviser Jared Kushner told Reuters.
In Rabat, Morocco’s royal court said Washington will open a consulate in Western Sahara as part of Morocco’s deal with Israel.
A White House proclamation said the United States believes that an independent Sahrawi State is “not a realistic option for resolving the conflict and that genuine autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty is the only feasible solution.”
“We urge the parties to engage in discussions without delay, using Morocco’s autonomy plan as the only framework to negotiate a mutually acceptable solution,” it said.
A representative of the Polisario Front independence movement for Western Sahara said it “regrets highly” the US change in policy, which it called “strange but not surprising.”
