11/12/2020
Moroccan King Mohammed VI on Thursday said his country would "resume official contacts... and diplomatic relations with minimal delay" with Israel, according to a statement from the royal palace.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed the agreement as "historic," calling it "another great light of peace" in the region. Israel recently penned similar deals with the Sunni Arab states of the United Arab Emirates, Sudan and Bahrain.
"I've always believed that this historic day would come," Netanyahu said, before lighting a candle for the Jewish Festival of Lights, Hanukkah, which began Thursday.
Netanyahu and Mohammed VI both raised the prospect of resuming direct flights between the countries and the opening of diplomatic missions.
Palestinian condemnation
The normalization of ties between Arab states and Israel has been a feat long considered impossible due to the political impasse of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Indeed, not all welcomed Thursday's announcement. Bassam as-Salhi, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization's Executive Committee, condemned the pact.
"Any Arab retreat from the [2002] Arab peace initiative, which stipulates that normalization comes only after Israel ends its occupation of Palestinian and Arab lands, is unacceptable and increases Israel's belligerence and its denial of the Palestinian people's rights," Salhi told news agency Reuters.
In Gaza, Hazem Qassem, spokesman for the ruling Islamist group Hamas, was equally critical. He said: "This is a sin and it doesnโt serve the Palestinian people. The Israeli occupation uses every new normalization to increase its aggression against the Palestinian people and increase its settlement expansion."
Trump proclaims 'breakthrough'
US President Donald Trump was the first to announce on Thursday that Morocco and Israel had agreed to normalize relations, following a call with Moroccan King Mohammed VI.
"Another HISTORIC breakthrough today! Our two GREAT friends Israel and the Kingdom of Morocco have agreed to full diplomatic relations โ a massive breakthrough for peace in the Middle East!" Trump tweeted.