US President Donald Trump on Thursday announced that Morocco agreed to begin normalising relations with Israel, becoming the fourth Arab state this year to join the Abraham Accords and advancing a major foreign goal for Trump's outgoing administration.
"Another HISTORIC breakthrough today! Our two GREAT friends Israel and the Kingdom of Morocco have agreed to full diplomatic relations - a massive breakthrough for peace in the Middle East!" tweeted Trump.
In another tweet, Trump said that he signed a proclamation recognising Moroccan sovereignty over the Western Sahara region.
"Today, I signed a proclamation recognizing Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara. Morocco's serious, credible, and realistic autonomy proposal is the ONLY basis for a just and lasting solution for enduring peace and prosperity!" he said.
In their first reactions to Trump's announcement later on Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Moroccan King Mohammed VI lauded the latest normalization agreement. reported The Times of Israel.
"This will be a very warm peace. On this Hannukah, the light of peace has never shone brighter than today in the Middle East," said Netanyahu at a Hanukkah candle-lighting ceremony at the Western Wall.
"I always believed in this peace, and now it's happening before our eyes. I want to thank President Trump for his extraordinary efforts to expand peace to bring peace to Israel and the Middle East," further said the Israeli PM.
King Mohammed said in a statement that Morocco would take three moves in the near future to advance relations, and thanked Trump for recognising Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara.
The Moroccan King cited the "historic role that Morocco has played in bringing the peoples of the region together and supporting security and stability in the Middle East, and given the special ties that bind the Jewish community of Moroccan origin, including those in Israel, to the person of His Majesty the King", as the reason for normalising ties.
"Morocco will also seek to develop innovative relationships in the economic and technological fields. As part of this goal, there will be work on renewing liaison offices in the two countries, as was the case in the past for many years, until 2002," he said.
According to The Times of Israel, both nations had established low-level diplomatic relations during the 1990s following Israel's interim peace accords with the Palestinians, but those ties were suspended after the outbreak of the second Palestinian uprising in 2000.
Morocco became the fourth country this year to normalise relations with Israel, after the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain and Sudan.The first two Arab countries to recognise Israel were Egypt in 1979 and Jordan in 1994.
( With inputs from ANI )
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