Rabat – Israeli Minister for Regional Cooperation Issawi Frej has said that Morocco is the country with the most potential to facilitate dialogue between Israel and Palestine, pointing out that the North African country shares good diplomatic ties with both parties of the Palestine-Israel conflict.
The Israeli official stressed Morocco’s role in regional politics and noted the presence of a sizable number of Moroccan Jews in Israel.
“Morocco has chaired the Al Quds Committee for decades and citizens from Morocco represent more than a million people in Israel,” he said.
Frej told the Isareli outlet I24News that Morocco is an “acceptable and friendly” country that can encourage a real conversation between Palestine and Israel, given the good relations it has with both countries.
The Isareli minister made the comments as he visited Morocco, a country he says can and should play a key role in facilitating genuine dialogue between Israel and Palestine.
“Morocco is the most mutually acceptable among all of the region” to lay the groundwork for actual negotiations between the sides of the long-running Israel-Palestine conflict,” he argued.
Despite the Morocco-Israeli rapprochement in 2020, Rabat has stressed that it will continue to support the Palestinian cause and a two-state solution to end the conflict.
Frej’s remarks echo recent comments by both senior Israeli and American officials after Israel and Jordan agreed to open the vital Allenby bridge linking the West Bank with Jordan.
Following the Allenby agreement, Merav Michaeli, Israel’s Minister of Transport and Road Safety, thanked Morocco for its “continued commitment and efforts to promote peace and prosperity in the Middle East.”
Likewise, a senior US official told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz that Morocco played a “major role” in the Allenby negotiations, noting: “While we worked on separate tracks, we were informed throughout the process of Morocco’s and Jordan’s efforts. It was these collective efforts that made the difference.”
