Rabat – The United States Department of State has moved Morocco under its Bureau of African Affairs, out of its previous position in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs.
At a meeting between US Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Egypt and the Magrheb Yael Lempert and Moroccan foreign minister Nasser Bourita Friday in Rabat, the secretary confirmed that Morocco had officially taken its new position as an “African” country in the eyes of US foreign policy.
Lempert told Bourita that the US and the kingdom enjoy a “solid” partnership which she hopes the two officials can “strengthen and deepen.”
Moroccan news site Al Yaoum24 said the move indicated a “new direction in US foreign policy, seeing the Maghreb and Egypt as part of Africa and not the Islamic world.”
The re-categorization is likely a response to Morocco’s diplomatic and economic efforts to boost ties within the African continent, recently reflected in its re-admission into the African Union in January after a 33-year absence and its acceptance into the Economic Community of West African States in June.
Following the AU re-acceptance, in February the US National Security Council announced it would re-file Morocco under its African department.
