A U.S. and an Israeli delegation arrived in Morocco on Tuesday to meet King Mohammed VI as part of efforts to advance normalisation talks.
The visit comes less than two weeks after Morocco joined a growing list of Arab countries to begin normalising relations with Israel.
Morocco’s official news agency MAP reported that the delegation had landed at Rabat-Sale Airport.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s senior advisor and son-in-law Jared Kushner is co-leading the delegation with Israeli National Security Advisor Meir Ben-Shabbat.
“We have several agreements we are looking to conclude on the trip and hopefully it will pave the way toward a very warm peace,” Kushner said.
Kushner said this at a news conference on the tarmac before the flight took off from Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport.
“History is being written before our eyes,” Ben-Shabbat said.
The U.S. embassy in Jerusalem said it was the first direct flight by Israeli airline El-Al to Morocco.
Israel also recently inked U.S.-brokered deals with the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain and Sudan – the first recognition of the Jewish state by Arab nations in a quarter of a century.
Most Arab countries have promised to never recognise Israel until a peace deal is struck with the Palestinians.
However, the recent normalisation agreements have shifted dynamics in the region.
At the same time as the Israel-Morocco deal was announced, Trump said the U.S. would recognised Moroccan sovereignty over North Africa’s disputed Western Sahara territory, reversing decades of U.S. policy.
Morocco took over Western Sahara in 1975 after Spain withdrew from the region and claims the phosphate-rich area as part of its territory.
The Algeria-backed Polisario Front movement seeks the region’s independence. (dpa/NAN)
