Bourita to Visit Palestine Next Week

Rabat – Morocco’s Foreign Affairs Minister Nasser Bourita is expected to pay a working visit to Palestine next Wednesday at the invitation of Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.

This visit will be the first of its kind for the Moroccan official, a source told Moroccan news outlet Le360.

Bourita will meet with President Abbas and other members of the Palestinian cabinet for talks on a wide range of topics, including the Palestinian statehood issue.

Al Khaleej online, an Emirates-based news outlet, reported that Nasser Bourita will also visit Jerusalem.

The visit is part of Morocco’s historical connection and obligation to the region, conducted under the instruction and supervision of King Mohammed VI, Chairman of the Al-Quds Committee. The kingdom’s commitment aims at protecting and perpetuating the historic and religious heritage of the multi-faith holy site.

Bourita’s visit will take place just a few months after President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital city of Israel and to move the US embassy there from Tel Aviv.

Trump’s decision was uniformly condemned by regional Arab and Western countries alike. World leaders, including King Mohammed VI, denounced the US decision, considering it a significant threat to further peace negotiations between Palestine and Israel.

The monarch sent a letter to President Trump on the eve of his decision (December 5), stressing that such a decision would significantly undermine peace negotiations in the region.

The King also sent a letter to the United Nations Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, in which he expressed his deep concern over Trump’s decision, emphasizing that such an action would effectively end peace negotiations between the two states.

Despite measures taken by the Arab world and Western leaders concerning the decision, the Trump Administration is now planning to open an interim embassy in Jerusalem in May in conjunction with the 70th anniversary of Israel declaring independence. The administration has said a larger permanent US embassy in Jerusalem would open in 2019.