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The Moroccan King Mohammed VI has invited Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu to visit the country, just days after Israel recognized Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara.
The Israeli prime minister office confirmed the invitation in a statement on Wednesday evening.
"The invitation was extended in a warm personal letter in which the king thanked the State of Israel for its willingness to recognize the Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara.”
It added: “King Mohammed VI wrote to the prime minister that 'the visit will open new possibilities to strengthen relations between our two countries.'”
The statement further said that following the invitation, Israeli national security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi and Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita agreed to coordinate a near-future date for the visit.
Relations between the two countries were renewed in 2020 in the framework of the Abraham Accords normalizing ties between Israel and Arab countries. At the time, the Trump administration agreed to recognize Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara, but Israeli recognition was not part of the deal.
Since then, bilateral ties have expanded in a variety of fields such as diplomacy, trade, security, technology, culture and more. Cooperation on security (arms sales, intelligence and military cooperation) has especially increased in the past two years following the signature of a security cooperation agreement in November 2021. The first Israeli military attache to Morocco was appointed earlier this week. That being said, the two countries have not yet opened full-scale embassies, but rather interest offices.
The announcement of Netanyahu on Monday on the Israeli recognition generated speculation over a reciprocity move on the Moroccan side.
Israel has been hoping for Rabat to upgrade its office in Tel Aviv to a full-scale embassy.
Another issue is the advancement of the Negev Forum for regional development, initiated last year by then-Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, bringing together the United States, Israel, the Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco. The next ministerial meeting should have taken place in Morocco but was postponed several times because of Israeli tensions with the Palestinians and also apparently because of the Moroccan request to hold it at the city of Dakhla in Western Sahara.
In addition, Netanyahu was always pinning his hopes on such an invite — a visit that is expected to be widely applauded by thousands of Israelis of Moroccan origin. After the signing of the Abraham Accords, Netanyahu invited the king to visit Israel, but the visit never took place.
Israel and Morocco had maintained unofficial ties even before the normalization of diplomatic relations in 2020. Late Prime Minister [President] Shimon Peres visited Morocco already in 1986 and met with the King Hassan II. In 2003, then-Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom visited Morocco, meeting with King Mohammed VI. Since the signing of the Abraham accords, Foreign Minister Yair Lapid visited Rabat in 2021, officially inaugurating Israel’s representation in the Moroccan capital. The Knesset’s Speaker Amir Ohana, of Moroccan origin, traveled to Rabat last June.
