Trump’s surprise announcement: “Morocco also has diplomatic relations with Israel”

WASHINGTON – Morocco and Israel have agreed to establish diplomatic relations. Announced it Donald trump On twitter. “Another historical turning point today. Our two great friends, Israel and the Kingdom of Morocco, have agreed to reestablish full diplomatic relations, a great turning point for peace in the Middle East!” The outgoing President of States wrote. United. Morocco thus joins the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Sudan, which in the last two months have normalized relations with the Jewish state, signing the so-called “Abrahamic Agreements” in Washington.

At the same time, the American leader carries out another controversial maneuver by recognizing Moroccan sovereignty over the territory of Western Sahara. “Today I signed a proclamation that recognizes the sovereignty of Morocco over Western Sahara”: Trump himself announced through Twitter. The territory of Western Sahara is disputed between Morocco and the Polisario Front (Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguia el Hamra and Río de Oro), a political movement that declared its independence by proclaiming the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic. According to Trump, the “serious, credible and realistic autonomy proposal is the only basis for a just and lasting solution that guarantees peace and prosperity.”

Al Otaiba: “Secret understandings with handshakes. Then we come to the Abrahamic Accords “

by MAURIZIO MOLINARI

October 15, 2020

Morocco is the fourth Muslim country to recognize Israel under the Abrahamic Accords that began over the summer with an agreement between the Jewish state and the United Arab Emirates. Bahrain and Sudan followed suit, and administration officials also tried to include Saudi Arabia in the group. All of these countries are geographically remote from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which facilitates the conclusion of agreements with Israel and the United States. Morocco also has close ties with Saudi Arabia, which has provided its tacit support for the normalization process with Israel, even at a time when peace with the Palestinians is stalled. For a long time it was rumored that Morocco was willing to establish ties with Tel Aviv.

Before Israel’s founding in 1948, Morocco was home to a large Jewish population, many of whose ancestors migrated to North Africa from Spain and Portugal during the Spanish Inquisition. Today, hundreds of thousands of Israeli Jews trace their ancestry to Morocco and a small community of Jews, estimated at several thousand, continues to live in Morocco. The North African country has had informal ties with Israel for years. Israel and Morocco established low-level diplomatic relations during the 1990s following Tel Aviv’s provisional peace accords with the Palestinians, but those ties were cut short after the second Palestinian uprising broke out in 2000. Since then, however, the Informal ties continued and an estimated 50,000 Israelis travel to Morocco each year to learn about the Jewish community and retrace their family histories.