Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to embark on a diplomatic tour in the coming months, including Morocco as his fifth stop.
Israel Hayom newspaper reports that Netanyahu’s tour, scheduled from September to December, will cover Greece, Cyprus, Turkey, Morocco, the UAE, and the UN General Assembly.
While Netanyahu’s government ministers have visited Morocco previously to discuss cooperation, this marks his first official trip to the country.
This follows an official invitation from King Mohammed VI after Israel’s decision to recognize Morocco’s sovereignty over the Sahara.
In a what Netanyahu’s office described as ‘warm, personal letter’ King Mohammed VI told Netanyahu that a meeting between them could be “an opportunity to promote the prospects of peace for all peoples in the region,” based on the principles that “should guide the settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”
Netanyahu’s visit may come around the same time for the planned Negev summit, set for the coming months according to previous statements from Moroccan officials.
The Negev summit has been postponed several times over what Morocco’s foreign ministry called ‘lack of an appropriate political context to achieve the desired results.’
Morocco has issued nearly a dozen condemnation statements against Israeli policies in 2023. Strongly worded letters called recent Israeli attacks on al-Aqsaa mosque, Gaza and increased settlements “provocatively and repetitive.”
But despite these criticisms Morocco and Israeli ties have grown – both on an economic and military scale through the Abraham accords.
Israel recently established its first military attaché to Morocco, and in June, an Israeli team of soldiers and officers participated in the Atlas Lion exercise in Morocco.
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