Morocco will likely be one of the next Arab countries to establish diplomatic relations with Israel following a Trump administration-brokered agreement between the United Arab Emirates and Israel, an Israeli TV report said over the weekend citing U.S. officials.
Morocco is home to around 3,000 Jews – the largest Jewish community of any Arab country. Some 300,000 Jews emigrated from the North African country as a result of unrest over the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948.
Morocco already has robust tourist and trade relations with Israel as well as intelligence cooperation.
According to Israel’s KAN public broadcaster, Morocco is likely to ask for U.S. recognition of its sovereignty over the Western Sahara territory, which it annexed in 1975, in exchange for normalizing ties with Israel.
The report added Rabat is seeking to strengthen ties with its American ally.
Bahrain and Oman, which both hailed the UAE’s decision to establish relations, are thought to be the next likely candidates for normalizing ties.
Following trilateral talks between the three countries Thursday, the White House announced that Israel and the United Arab Emirates had signed an agreement to establish full diplomatic relations.
Netanyahu described it as a “historic moment of breakthrough for peace.”
“It marks the dawning of new era for Israel’s relations with the Arab world,” he said.
The deal marks the third Arab country to hold diplomatic ties with the Jewish state after Egypt and Jordan. Most of the Arab world does not recognize the existence of Israel.
UAE leader Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan posted on Twitter: “The UAE and Israel also agreed to cooperation and setting a roadmap towards establishing a bilateral relationship.”
Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan on Sunday called his Israeli counterpart, Gabi Ashkenazi, in one of the first direct phone calls between the two countries. Until now, the UAE had blocked calls to Israel’s country code +972.
Similarly, Israeli news websites that had previously been blocked by the Emirati government were now accessible.
The first business deal struck between the two countries’ private sector occurred on Saturday when APEX National Investment, of the UAE, and Israel’s TeraGroup signed an R&D agreement to fight COVID-19.
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