Morocco Refuses to Normalize Relations with Israel

Rabat, MINA – Moroccan Prime Minister Saad Dine El Otmani said his country refused to normalize relations with Israel because it violated the rights of the Palestinian people.

“We reject any normalization with the Zionist entity, because this gives him the courage to go so far as to violate the rights of the Palestinian people,” Saad Dine told his Islamist Justice and Development Party (PJD) on Sunday, MEMO reported.

The remarks come ahead of the arrival of US President Donald Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, to the region and after the United Arab Emirates (UAE) concluded a deal to normalize relations with Israel.

“Morocco’s official position supports a two-state solution, with East Jerusalem as the capital of the Palestinian state,” he stressed.

Morocco and Israel began low-level relations in 1993 after an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement was reached. However, Rabat suspended relations with the Jewish state after the uprising against Israel in Palestine in 2000.

The normalization of relations between the UAE and Israel which is mediated by the United States has come under fire and been considered a betrayal of Palestine.

The agreement makes the UAE the third Arab country and the first Gulf Arab state to establish full relations with Israel, after Egypt in 1979 and Jordan in 1994. (T/RE1)

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)