Israel, Morocco sign deals, will open mutual liaison offices within weeks

Liaison offices between Israel and Morocco will reopen within the next few weeks in Rabat and Tel Aviv, respectively, after being closed roughly 20 years ago, officials from the countries say.

Senior Adviser to US President Donald Trump Jared Kushner praises the efforts of Morocco and Israel to normalize ties, saying “huge strides” were made with a number of bilateral and trilateral agreements that will be signed in the coming days. Six of them will be signed today.

Israeli National Security Adviser Meir Ben-Shabbat, the son of Morocco-born parents, says — first in Arabic and then in Hebrew — that normalized ties with Rabat have more than just diplomatic value to the hundreds of thousands of Israelis of Moroccan descent.

Kushner jokes that while many Israelis have traveled to the United Arab Emirates after the signing of a normalization deal, he expects that Morocco will “give it a run for its money,” given the deep cultural ties between the two countries.

Ben-Shabbat says the agreements that are being signed between the two countries deal with tourism, agriculture and other issues.

One agreement being signed now means visas won’t be needed for diplomatic passports. A second is to sort out civil aviation regulations. A third is on cooperation on water resource research and development. A fourth is on cooperation on finance and investment.

— Judah Ari Gross in Rabat