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Flight 555, from Tel Aviv, landed at Rabat-Salé International Airport, this Tuesday, to be the first flight of the Israeli El Al Airlines to Morocco, carrying on board a delegation that includes American and Israeli officials, led by Jared Kouchner, adviser to the US president.
The joint delegation’s visit to Rabat came after the signing of a peace agreement between Israel and Morocco under the auspices of the United States.
The delegation includes Israel’s National Security Advisor, Meir Ben Shabat, who is of Moroccan descent as his father is from Casablanca, his mother is from Marrakech, the Director General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Alon Auschbiz, and officials from various Israeli ministries, plus a US delegation headed by Kushner, and the one envoy to the Middle East. Avi Berkowitz and Adam Bowler, Director of the US International Investment Division.
Morocco is the fourth country to adhere to the Ibrahim Accords, after the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Sudan.
Israeli government spokesman Ofir Gendelman told Al-Hurra that his country hopes to build a bridge of relations between the two countries, in which Maghreb Jews living in Israel and Morocco contribute.
On Tuesday, Israel’s Foreign Ministry confirmed that several agreements will be signed with Morocco, including the opening of liaison offices for both countries and the opening of direct airlines between the two countries.
“Various agreements will also be signed in the fields of irrigation, agriculture, trade and technology, financial spending and all procedures for entry visas to both countries,” Israel’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Shortly before the plane took off from Ben Gurion Airport, Kushner said he expected this flight to lead to a start similar to that between Israel and the United Arab Emirates.
Kushner stressed that today joint agreements will be signed for the two countries so that peace is warm, while Ben Shabat explained that the objective of his country is to translate political agreements into practical agreements on the ground in the fields of aviation, agriculture , the economy and water, considering that “history is written before our eyes”.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry’s Middle East Department official Lior Ben Dor told Al-Hurra that although relations between Israel and Morocco had existed since 1994, they came to a halt with the outbreak of the second intifada in 2000.
“Even during the last twenty years, the two parties maintained contacts and cooperation in various fields, especially tourism, since the equivalent of fifty thousand Israelis visited Morocco during the past year,” he added, hoping “that this number will increase with the establishment. of official relations “.
Ben Dor pointed out that “since the announcement of the establishment of official relations between the two countries, businessmen from Israel and Morocco began to contact him and others from the Foreign Ministry to study possibilities of undertaking joint projects.”
The Maghreb Jewish community in Israel is approximately one million people, some of whom hold high-ranking positions such as Transport Minister Miri Regev, Interior Minister Aryeh Deri and Defense Ministry Minister Mikhail Bitoun.
A US official who was on board the plane bound for Morocco confirmed that other countries could soon join these agreements without naming them, but added that “work is being done to include them,” noting that “each country has different demands and concerns and that did the US administration in the last period “. He listened to it and worked to fulfill it, which led to the Abrahamic agreements. ”
This visit will last approximately twelve hours, provided that you return to Israel immediately before beginning to impose mandatory measures so that all returnees from outside the country remain in quarantine in isolated hotels to prevent the outbreak of the new Corona virus.
Regarding the Palestinian file, a US official who was on board the plane explained that the door is still open to return to the negotiating table, and considered that repeating the previous approach will not give results, “but that new ways must be found to change the conflict equation. ”
