During a bilateral defence conference on Tuesday in Rabat, Morocco and Israel decided to improve their military partnership by extending it to intelligence and cybersecurity.
The two countries “agreed to further strengthen this cooperation and expand it to other areas, including intelligence, air defence and electronic warfare,” said the staff of the Royal Armed Forces (FAR) in a press release.
This declaration follows the first meeting of the Moroccan-Israeli defence cooperation monitoring committee, which was held on Monday and Tuesday in the Moroccan capital as a result of the two nations’ military collaboration.
FAR Inspector General Belkhir El Farouk and Dror Shalom, Director of the Israeli Defence Ministry‘s Politico-Military Affairs Office, shared leadership of the meeting.
According to the press release, the two sides also looked at “logistics, training, and training as well as the procurement and modernisation of equipment” as part of their partnership.
Cooperation “carrying mutual interests and based on trust and mutual support”, welcomed Belkhir El Farouk, number two in the Moroccan army.
Benny Gantz, a former Israeli defence minister, signed a memorandum of understanding in Rabat in November 2021 to establish security ties with Morocco.
In July, former army chief Aviv Kochavi made the first trip by an Israeli chief of staff to the Cherifian kingdom, following his historic tour.
Since the diplomatic normalisation that took place in December 2020 as part of the Abraham Accords, a process between the Jewish state and numerous Arab nations, which was backed by Washington, the rapprochement between Morocco and Israel has advanced.
Algeria, a close ally of the Palestinians, views this reconciliation with distrust, heightening the already heightened tensions between the two nations over their divergent views of Western Sahara.
Morocco, which governs 80% of the region, is at odds with Algeria-backed Polisario Front separatists in the Western Sahara.
