December 10, 2020
Morocco, Israel normalize relations in US-brokered deal
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
Morocco and Israel agreed on Thursday to normalize relations in a U.S.-brokered deal. As part of the agreement, US President Donald Trump agreed to recognize Morocco’s sovereignty over the disputed Western Sahara, where Polisario Front, seeks to establish an independent state.
Morocco is the fourth Arab country since August to normalize relations with Israel. The others were the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Sudan.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed the normalization deal with Morocco as “another great light of peace”, saying there would be direct flights between the countries and the opening of diplomatic missions.
Palestinians denounce
Palestinian officials reacted angrily to the announcement. Bassam as-Salhi, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s Executive Committee, condemned the deal.
“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 was quoted by Al Jazeera as saying.
In Gaza, Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem said: “This is a sin and it doesn’t serve the Palestinian people. The Israeli occupation uses every new normalization to increase its aggression against the Palestinian people and increase its settlement expansion.”
Moroccan King Mohammmed told Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in a phone call on Thursday that Rabat stands by a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a royal court statement quoted by Al Jazeera.
The king added negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians are the only way to reach a final, lasting and comprehensive solution to the conflict.
Bahrain, Egypt, UAE welcome
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi was the first Arab leader to praise the agreement, according to the Israeli newspaper Hamodia: “I followed with great interest the important development regarding the agreement between Morocco and Israel to normalize relations between them with American mediation. If this step bears fruit, it would create further stability and cooperation in our region,” al-Sissi said.
Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa praised the Moroccan decision to establish diplomatic relations and official connections with Israel, state news agency BNA reported on Thursday. The statement also welcomed U.S. recognition of Morocco’s sovereignty over the Western Sahara region.
The United Arab Emirates welcomed Morocco’s decision to resume diplomatic relations and communications with Israel, crown prince of Abu Dhabi Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan wrote on Twitter. “This step, a sovereign move, contributes to strengthening our common quest for stability, prosperity, and just and lasting peace in the region.”
Western Sahara
Senator Jim Inhofe, the Republican chairman of the U.S. Senate’s Armed Services Committee, denounced Trump’s “shocking and deeply disappointing” decision to recognize Morocco’s sovereignty over Western Sahara. Inhofe said people living in the area should vote in a referendum to decide their future.
“The president has been poorly advised by his team. He could have made this deal without trading the rights of a voiceless people,” Inhofe was quoted by Reuters as saying.
The change in U.S. policy on Western Sahara took officials at the United Nations by surprise. A U.N. spokesman said officials there learned about it in a tweet and still believe the status of the former Spanish colony should be resolved according to U.N. resolutions.
The United Nations considers the Polisario Front to be the legitimate representative of the Sahrawi people and maintains that the Sahrawis have a right to self-determination. The Polisario Front is outlawed in the parts of Western Sahara under Moroccan control, and it is illegal to raise its party flag (often called the Sahrawi flag) there.
In an official statement, the Polisario Front slammed the US decision.
“The stance… is a blatant violation of the United Nations charter and the resolutions of international legitimacy,” the group said, adding that the move “obstructs efforts by the international community to find a solution to the conflict”.
“This will not change an inch of the reality of the conflict and the right of the people of Western Sahara to self determination,” the Polisario’s Europe representative Oubi Bchraya said earlier on Thursday. “The Polisario will continue its struggle.”
“This is the United States being now the only Western nation to recognize Moroccan sovereignty over the Western Sahara,” Al Jazeera’s Kimberly Halkett reported from Washington, DC. “There’s going to be a tough choice for President-elect [Joe] Biden when he comes in: is he going to affirm what Donald Trump has done, or is he going to have make the decision to reverse it?”
Washington had supported a 1991 ceasefire between Morocco and the Western Sahara’s Polisario Front independence movement that called for a referendum to resolve the issue. Last month, after a border incident, the Polisario pulled out of that deal and announced a return to armed struggle.
The Polisario Front was launched in May 1973 for an armed struggle against Spanish occupation of Western Sahara.
Diplomatic mercenary
Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst Marwan Bishara said Thursday’s announcement was another example of “America as a diplomatic mercenary on behalf of Israel”.
“Let’s call it what it is – the imperial proclamation. At the end of the day, Washington is using its influence around the world on behalf of Israel, or rather Israel is outsourcing American power for its own benefit in the greater Middle East,” said Bishara.
According to Al Jazeera, Israel and Morocco 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.
Since then, however, the informal ties have continued, and an estimated 50,000 Israelis travel to Morocco each year on trips to learn about the Jewish community and retrace their family histories.
Abdus Sattar Ghazali is the Chief Editor of the Journal of America (www.journalofamerica.net) email: asghazali2011 (@) gmail.com
The Journal of America Team:
Editor in chief:
Abdus Sattar Ghazali
Senior Editor:
Prof. Arthur Scott
Special Correspondent
Maryam Turab
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