ISRAEL MOROCCO DEAL
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Subject: International Relations
Context: Recently, Morocco and Israel have agreed to normalise relations in a deal brokered by the USA.
Concept:
- It makes Morocco the fourth Arab country, after the UAE, Bahrain (Abraham Accords) and Sudan, to set aside hostilities with Israel in the past four months.
Highlights of the Deal:
- Morocco will establish full diplomatic relations and resume official contacts with Israel, reopen their liaison offices in Rabat (capital of Morocco) and Tel Aviv (a city in Israel) immediately with the intention to open embassies and promote economic cooperation between Israeli and Moroccan companies.
- Morocco intends to facilitate direct flights for Israeli tourists to and from Morocco.
- The USA has changed its longstanding policy and recognised Morocco’s sovereignty over Western Sahara.
- Since 2007, the UN Security Council, of which the USA is a veto-capable permanent member, has called on Morocco and the Polisario to engage in negotiations without preconditions to reach a “mutually acceptable political solution, which will provide for the self-determination of the people of Western Sahara.”
Western Sahara
- Western Sahara is a desert region, a former Spanish colony and was annexed by Morocco in 1975.
- Since then, it has been the subject of a long-running territorial dispute between Morocco and its indigenous Saharawi people, led by the pro-independence Polisario Front.
- Morocco says it has always been part of its territory, while the African Union recognises it as an independent state.
- A 16-year-long insurgency ended with an UN-brokered truce in 1991 and the promise of a referendum on independence, which has yet to take place.
- The USA supported the ceasefire between Morocco and the Polisario Front.
- In November 2020, after a border incident, the Polisario pulled out of that deal and announced a return to armed struggle.
- The USA’s backing of Morocco’s claim to sovereignty over Western Sahara is a big deal because it diminishes the hope of a people who have aspired for the independence of that territory for decades.
