The Kingdom of Morocco and Israel signed, on Tuesday, four agreements in the fields of economy, trade, and tourism, in Rabat, on the sidelines of the signing of an agreement to resume relations between them under an American sponsorship.

“The first agreement concerns on the exemption from visa procedures for the holders of diplomatic and service passports, while the second agreement concerns on a memorandum of understanding in the field of civil aviation,” Anadolu Agency reported from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation statement.

The statement stated that the third agreement, which provides for technical cooperation in the field of water management and preparation, relates to a memorandum of understanding about innovation and development of water resources, while the fourth agreement relates to a memorandum of understanding for cooperation in the field of finance and investment between Rabat and Tel Aviv.

The fourth agreement, which relates to the agreement to avoid double taxation, the agreement to revive and protect investments, and the customs aid agreement, provides the revival of the economic relations between the two sides through trade, investmen, and negotiation of other agreements that support these relations.

Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of the US President, and Meir Ben-Shabbat is Israel's National Security Adviser and Chief of Staff for National Security, arrived, on Tuesday, to Rabat, at the head of a US-Israeli delegation.

The US President Donald Trump announced, on 10 December, that he had reached a normalize relations agreement between Morocco and Israel. Rabat on the same day announced its intention to resume official bilateral contacts and diplomatic relations with Tel Aviv as soon as possible.

Rabat says that the matter is not normalization, but rather a resumption of official relations that were suspended in 2002.

Morocco began a low level relations with Israel in 1993, after the signing of Oslo Accords between the Palestine Liberation Organization and Tel Aviv, but Rabat froze those relations in 2002 in the wake of the outbreak of Al-Aqsa Intifada.

Morocco has become the only Maghreb country that maintains relations with the Israeli entity, which considered as a striking Israeli penetration into the Maghreb region that includes Algeria, Mauritania, Tunisia, and Libya.

During 2020, Morocco also became the fourth Arab country that normalizes relations with Israel, after the Emirates, Bahrain, and Sudan, while by those Arab countries, Jordan and Egypt are bound by two peace agreements with Israel since 1994 and 1979.

Source : Safa