Israel and Morocco to establish full official relations, Trump announces

President’s decision to recognize Rabat’s claim over Western Sahara appears to pave way for North African kingdom to open embassy in Tel Aviv and allow flights

By AP and JACOB MAGID, TOI

(L-R) Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, US President Donald Trump and Morocco’s Foreign Minister, Saad Eddine El Othmani (Abir Sultan, Evan Vucci and Abdeljalil Bounhar/AP)

NEW YORK — Israel and Morocco have agreed to reestablish diplomatic relations, US President Donald Trump announced Thursday, marking the fourth Arab-Israel agreement in four months.

As part of the deal, the US will recognize Morocco’s claim over the disputed Western Sahara region.

As his time in office winds down, Trump said Israel and Morocco would restore diplomatic and other relations, including the immediate opening of liaison offices in Rabat and Tel Aviv and the eventual opening of embassies. US officials said it would also include joint overflight rights for airlines.

Israel and Morocco established low-level diplomatic relations during the 1990s following Israel’s interim peace accords with the Palestinians, but those ties were suspended after the outbreak of the second Palestinian uprising in 2000. Since then, however, the informal ties have continued, and an estimated 50,000 Israelis travel to Morocco each year on trips, learning about the Jewish community and retracing family histories.

The White House said Trump and Morocco’s King Mohammed VI had agreed in a conversation that Morocco would “resume diplomatic relations between Morocco and Israel and expand economic and cultural cooperation to advance regional stability.”

In a separate but likey closely-tied statement, the US said it will recognize Morocco’s claim over Western Sahara, the former Spanish North African territory which has been the focus of a long-running dispute that has confounded international negotiators for decades.

Morocco is the fourth Arab nation to recognize Israel as the administration seeks to expand its “Abraham Accords” framework, which began over the summer with an agreement between the Jewish state and the United Arab Emirates.

Bahrain and Sudan have followed suit and administration officials have also been trying to bring Saudi Arabia into the fold.

“The president reaffirmed his support for Morocco’s serious, credible, and realistic autonomy proposal as the only basis for a just and lasting solution to the dispute over the Western Sahara territory and as such the president recognized Moroccan sovereignty over the entire Western Sahara territory,” the White House said.