RABAT, Morocco — Israel's top diplomat landed in
Morocco on Wednesday for the first visit by a senior official from
Israel since
the two sides agreed to normalize ties last year.
اضافة اعلان
Foreign Minister Yair Lapid is expected to meet his Moroccan
counterpart, Nasser Bourita, on Wednesday and open a diplomatic representation
on Thursday in the capital Rabat.
"We have landed in Morocco. Proud to represent Israel
during this historic visit," Lapid wrote on Twitter as his flight operated
by Israeli national airline El Al arrived.
Israel and Morocco normalized ties last year after then US
president Donald Trump recognized Morocco's contested sovereignty in Western
Sahara.
Morocco was the fourth Arab state to establish ties with
Israel last year after the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Sudan.
The move infuriated the Palestinians as it shattered the
longstanding Arab consensus that there should be no normalization until Israel
agrees to a comprehensive and lasting peace.
The Israeli delegation is expected to visit the royal
mausoleum where kings Hassan II and Mohammed V are buried, before the bilateral
meeting between Lapid and Bourita.
Lapid is also expected to visit the Beth-El synagogue in
Casablanca on his two-day visit, the Israeli foreign ministry said.
Cooperation agreements
The two countries are expected to sign three cooperation
agreements on Wednesday, the Moroccan foreign ministry said, without giving
further details.
The trip comes around three weeks after rights groups
accused Morocco of having used the Israeli spyware program Pegasus.
Rabat strongly denied the reports and said it was suing the
rights groups.
Lapid's visit also comes a little over two weeks after
direct flights were launched between Israel and Morocco.
Since then, the first Israeli tourists have flooded into the
country's tourist magnet Marrakesh, and into Casablanca.
Before the pandemic, between 50,000 and 70,000 Israeli
tourists — mainly of Moroccan origin — had visited annually, albeit by
transiting through third countries.
The North African country hosts the Arab world's largest
Jewish community of some 3,000 people.
They are the remnant of a once much larger community. Some
700,000 Jews of Moroccan descent now live in Israel.
Morocco and Israel maintained liaison offices in the 1990s,
before closing them during the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising,
that raged from 2000 to 2005.
Lapid's visit to Rabat follows a June trip to the United
Arab Emirates, where he inaugurated the new Israeli embassy in Abu Dhabi.
It comes just days before Israel is due to require all
travelers returning from Morocco to quarantine following a review of the risks
of COVID-19 infection.
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