President Trump and Sen. The Morocco-Israel normalization deal between Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), Who is chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, was a success, sources told me.
Why it’s important: Inhoffe is a staunch supporter of Washington’s Polisario Front – a Saharawi rebel national liberation movement aimed at ending the Moroccan occupation of Western Sahara. He has traveled to Algeria several times for meetings with police leaders.
- Inhof is Trump’s closest ally in the Senate and he has told the president over the past two years not to recognize Moroccan sovereignty in the Western Sahara.
Behind the scenes: Trump’s senior adviser Jared Kushner and special envoy Avi Berkowitz have been talking for more than two years with the Moroccan government about the possibility of normalizing relations with Israel in exchange for Western Sahara recognition.
- The original idea came from a group of former Israeli officials, led by Ram Ben Barak, a former deputy director of the Mossad. His company does business in Morocco with Yariv Elbaz, a Moroccan Jew who is one of Morocco’s leading food retailers and a close associate of Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Baurita.
- In 2018, Ben Barack and Albaaz spoke with Netanyahu’s national security advisers, former U.S. special envoys Jason Greenblatt and Baurita, and raised the idea of an Israeli-general-Israel-generalization in the Western Sahara. There was no progress on this initiative, but an alliance was formed between Albaaz and Netanyahu’s aides, as well as Albaaz and the White House – Jared Kushner.
- In May 2019, Elbaz met with Kushner in Morocco and took him and the entire White House “peace team” to visit the old Jewish cemetery in Casablanca.
Kushner met during the visit With King Mohammed VI, who visited the U.S. in western Sahara. Raised the issue of recognition. At this meeting the White House made clear how important this issue is for Morocco.
- After the visit, a direct channel was created between Kushner’s team and Moroccan Foreign Minister Baurita. Morocco’s foreign minister visited the White House several weeks later to push the talks forward.
- Baurita held separate meetings with Kushner and Ivanka Trump, both raising the issue of Western Sahara. Kushner decided to move forward with the initiative after visiting Baurita.
- The Israeli government has repeatedly encouraged the White House to pursue this track over the past two years in the hope that it could lead Morocco to agree to normalize relations.
Kushner, Berkowitz and Baurita The deal was reached more effectively than a year ago, but Inhof joined forces with then-National Security Adviser John Bolton to oppose it. Trump, close to Inhofe and in need of his political support, agreed not to move forward with the deal.
Driving News: The relationship between Trump and Inhoff was strained about a week ago due to the National Defense Authorization Act, an important military funding bill that has been passed by Congress since 1961, sources involved in the case told me.
- Trump wanted to include Inhofe’s provisions in the bill to repeal protections for social media companies and assassinate the provision to rename military installations named after federal leaders.
- Inofi denied both demands and, as reported by Axis’ Alena Train, both received a difficult phone call in which Inhoff agreed with Trump and said: “This is our only chance to get our bill passed.”
- An angry Trump hit back at Inhofe on his Twitter account, saying his position would damage U.S. national security and the integrity of the election and reiterated his threat to veto the bill.
Sources who were informed about this matter I was told that Trump’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows, Kushner and Berkowitz, saw this as the beginning of a Moroccan deal.
- They raised the issue with President Trump and he gave them the green light. They then investigated with Morocco whether they were still interested in the deal since last year. Morocco said yes.
- Surprisingly, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu was not so happy. An Israeli official told me that Netanyahu did not like the language part of the statement, that the Moroccans who were going to the statement and they were offended would not take part in the phone call between Trump and the King of Morocco. Netanyahu’s office denied the allegations to Axioz.
- The other person who was not happy was Inhoffe. After announcing the deal on Thursday, Inhoff spoke on the Senate floor, calling the White House decision “shocking and deeply disappointing.” He added that he was “saddened that the rights of the people of Western Sahara have been traded.”
Big picture: The Western Sahara is a distinctly populated, disputed area bordering Morocco on the northwest corner of Africa.
- This was previously controlled by Spain and has been claimed by Morocco despite international opposition and fierce resistance from the indigenous population.
- Violent insurgency ended in 1991 after 16 years, but the issue remains unresolved. A few weeks ago, fighting broke out again between the Moroccan army and the Saharawi rebels.
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