Israeli envoy arrives in Morocco, for first time in 20 years

By Lazar Berman

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26 January 2021, 5:06 pm

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Lazar Berman is The Times of Israel's diplomatic reporter

Israel’s chargé d’affaires to Morocco arrives in the capital city of Rabat, twenty years after Israel closed its liaison office in the north African country.

David Govrin, who served as Israel’s ambassador to Egypt in 2016-2020, will set to work building up Israel’s diplomatic mission in the country, and expanding bilateral political, tourism, economic, and cultural ties.

Morocco became the third Arab state in 2020 to normalize ties with Israel under US-brokered deals, joining the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. In return, former US president Donald Trump fulfilled a decades-old goal of Morocco by backing its contested sovereignty in Western Sahara, what Rabat refers to as its “southern provinces.”