RABAT: Jared Kushner, US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and adviser, is due to arrive on Tuesday in Morocco from Israel on the first direct commercial flight between the two countries since they normalised ties.
The flight from Tel Aviv to Rabat is seen as highly symbolic after Morocco announced on December 10 a “resumption of relations” with Israel.
It also aims to showcase the achievements of the Trump administration in Middle East diplomacy, weeks before Trump is replaced at the White House by President-elect Joe Biden.
Morocco became the third Arab state this year, after the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, to normalise ties with Israel under US-brokered deals, while Sudan has pledged to follow suit.
In return, the US president fulfilled a decades-old goal of Morocco by backing its contested sovereignty in Western Sahara.
Kushner will be heading an American delegation, and during his visit to Rabat a series of agreements will be signed between Morocco and Israel, according to officials.
Negotiations leading to Morocco’s resumption of ties with Israel included the opening of a US consulate in Western Sahara, and US investments which Moroccan media described as “colossal”.
At the same time Israel and Morocco are due to reopen diplomatic offices and activate economic cooperation between them.
Morocco closed its liaison office in Tel Aviv in 2000, at the start of the second Palestinian intifadha, or uprising.
King Mohammed VI has said Morocco will remain an advocate for the Palestinians, but the Palestinians have cried foul and condemned the normalisation announcement. — AFP
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