Relations between Morocco and Israel were “already normal” before a diplomatic normalization was recently announced, Morocco’s foreign minister said Sunday.
“From our perspective, we aren’t talking about normalization because relations were already normal,” Nasser Bourita was quoted as saying in an interview with Israel’s Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper.
“We’re talking about (re-formalizing) the relations between the countries to the relations we had because there have been relations the entire time. They never stopped,” he added.
On Thursday, Morocco announced a “resumption of relations” with Israel, shortly after outgoing US President Donald Trump tweeted that Rabat and the Jewish state had “agreed to full diplomatic relations.”
That followed Trump’s recognition of Morocco’s contested sovereignty in Western Sahara.
Morocco’s announcement is widely seen as making it the fourth Arab country this year to unveil plans to normalize ties with Israel through a US-brokered deal, following the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Sudan.
“Israel’s relations with Morocco are special and can’t be compared to the relations that Israel has with any other Arab country,” Bourita stressed.
He highlighted his country’s enduring connection to Israel through its domestic Jewish community and the estimated 700,000 Israeli Jews of Moroccan descent.
“Morocco has an important history with the Jewish community, a history that is special in the Arab world,” he told the paper.
Meanwhile, the country’s Justice and Development Party broke its silence on Trump’s recognition of the Moroccan Sahara in exchange for full normalization with Israel.
The Islamic party, which used to criticize any normalization with Israel, has avoided criticizing the kingdom’s recent move.
The normalization agreement includes facilitating the travel of Jews and Israelis to Morocco and establishing diplomatic and economic relations with the Hebrew state.
The party only reiterated its constant stance against the “Zionist occupation” and denounced the “crimes of murder, displacement, and aggression” against the Palestinian people.
