By: Aryeh Savir
Israeli Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi spoke on Tuesday with Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita, the first conversation between the two since relations between the two countries were renewed in December.
This was Bourita’s second conversation with a senior Israeli official in the past week after he spoke with the head of Israel’s National Security Council Meir Ben Shabbat on Friday.
The two discussed “regional strategic issues, including the fear that Iran will arm itself with nuclear weapons,” Israel’s Foreign Ministry stated.
They also talked about setting up work teams in various fields, including water, agriculture, tourism, the environment, and energy.
Ashkenazi stated he had a “warm and friendly” first conversation with Bourita.
“We agreed to work together to rapidly implement the agreements between Morocco and Israel. We also discussed increasing bilateral cooperation as well as wider regional issues,” he stated.
It was also agreed between the two to maintain continuous and direct contact. The two top diplomats instructed their office directors to promote work teams and mutual delegations.
The two foreign ministers also arranged to meet as soon as possible due to Coronavirus restrictions.
Ashkenazi is slated to leave office later this year.
Morocco was the fourth country to announce the establishment of full relations with Israel in five months.
The United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain shortly after it, announced in August the normalization of relations with Israel.
The Abraham Accords were signed between the three countries on September 15 on the White House lawns.
Sudan was next to announce the normalization of relations with Israel in October, Israel’s third peace treaty in two months.
The Abraham Accords, the first pact between an Arab country and Israel in 25 years, is expected to lead to similar agreements with other Arab countries, possibly Oman or Saudi Arabia.
In another development, last week, it was reported that Israel’s Intelligence Minister Eli Cohen made a historic visit to Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, as the head of a joint delegation of the Ministry of Intelligence and the National Security Council, which was dispatched by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, weeks after Sudan joined the Abraham Accords.
Cohen met with Sudanese President Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, Defense Minister Yassin Ibrahim and other senior members of the Sudanese government.
The delegation, which returned to Israel just before the closure of Ben Gurion Airport, included heads of divisions in the Ministry of Intelligence and the National Security Council and officials from other government ministries who came for working meetings with their Sudanese counterparts.
(TPS)
