Two years and seven months after normalize their relationshipsIsrael recognizes Morocco’s sovereignty over the Occidental Sahara. This was announced by the Moroccan Royal House revealing the letter sent in this regard by the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. Two hours after the Rabat statement, official confirmation came from Jerusalem. “This step will strengthen relations between the two countries and peoples and the continuation of cooperation to deepen peace and stability in the region,” Foreign Minister Eli Cohen said.
In this way, Israel follows the path of EU which in December 2020 surprised the world by recognizing the Moroccan sovereignty of the former Spanish colony. In return, Morocco ended 20 years of breakup with the Jewish State joining the Abraham Accords promoted by the then president Donald Trump.
In the letter sent to the king Mohamed VI and revealed by him, Netanyahu recognizes “Morocco’s sovereignty over the territory of Western Sahara”, in a new position that “will be reflected in all relevant acts and documents of the Israeli Government” and will be notified to the “United Nations, regional organizations and international organizations of which Israel is a member as well as all countries with which Israel maintains diplomatic relations”.
Since the normalization of relations that officially filled the hole created by Rabat when it broke them on the occasion of the Second Palestinian Intifada At the beginning of the century, the recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara was on the foreign agenda of the Netanyahu government when it returned to power almost seven months ago. “We are studying it,” Israeli sources told EL MUNDO several months ago in the hope that the measure will lead Morocco to raise the rank of its diplomatic legation in Tel Aviv and order the opening of the embassy and invite Netanyahu to an official visit. . According to the Moroccan monarch, Israel is considering “positively” the creation of a consulate in Dahla in Western Sahara.
The two countries await further tighten a connection focused mainly on the field of security, tourism, agriculture and high technologies. Since the normalization of relations (December 2020) and the Defense agreement (November 2021) signed in Rabat by the then Defense Minister, Benny Gantz and his Moroccan counterpart Abdellatif Loudiyi In what was the first military memorandum between Israel and an Arab country, the Israeli arms industry has made numerous profitable visits to Morocco. The great supply of weapons and technologies was met with equally great demand on a board of strategic alliances. Beyond the collaboration between the Mossad and the Moroccan monarchy that dates back to the 1960s, Israel is on the side of Morocco against Algeria in the framework of the war with its great enemy, Iran.