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Morocco’s Minister of the Interior, Abdelouafi Laftit, has agreed to “soon” meet with his Israeli counterpart, Amir Ohana.
The two senior officials held a telephone conversation on Monday, February 8, Ohana announced on Twitter.
“I spoke tonight with my Moroccan colleague, Interior Minister Abdelouafi Laftit,” he wrote.
The Israeli official, who comes from a Moroccan family, said he greeted Laftit in the Moroccan dialect, Darija, before inviting him to visit Israel.
During the future visit, the Moroccan minister would hold meetings with senior Israeli officials responsible for security services and other special units.
“The conversation was unusually warm and we agreed to meet soon, in Morocco or in Israel,” Ohana concluded.
While several Israeli newspapers reported on the phone call between Laftit and Ohana, Moroccan state media avoided sharing the news.
Avoiding to report on exchanges between Moroccan and Israeli officials appears to be the norm for Morocco’s state media, despite the re-establishment of official relations between Morocco and Israel in late December 2020.
In recent weeks, several Moroccan ministers held telephone conversations with their Israeli counterparts in view of exploring further opportunities for bilateral cooperation.
The Moroccan ministers of industry, tourism, and foreign affairs have all virtually met with their Israeli counterparts and expressed their hopes for the development of fruitful bilateral ties between the two countries.
The frequent exchanges in recent weeks indicate a mutual willingness to build Moroccan-Israeli partnerships as soon as possible.
However, with many of the virtual meetings going underreported in Morocco, it is unclear how Moroccan officials will promote bilateral ties and exchange between the two nations.
