Reports: Tunisia, Algeria prevent Israel airplane from using their airspaces to Morocco

Tunisia and Algeria have prevented an Israeli airplane from using their airspaces on its way to the Moroccan city of Rabat, forcing it to take an indirect route through Europe, local media outlets from both countries reported.

Tunisia’s Nessma TV channel revealed that the Israeli airplane was forced to take a northern route that passes over the Mediterranean Sea then through the Greek, Italian and Spanish airspaces to reach the Moroccan capital, after both Tunisia and Algeria closed their airspaces to the Israeli airplane.

Meanwhile, Algeria’s Ennahar Online news site refuted earlier reports claiming that Algeria allowed the “Zionist plane” to use its airspace.

Moroccan Al-Sahifah news site confirmed that the first direct flight between Tel Aviv and Rabat avoided entering the airspaces of North African countries.

There were no official comments from Algeria and Tunisia on the reports. However, in a statement the Tunisian Foreign Ministry rejected “reports” claiming that Tunisia intends to normalise relations with Israel and described them as “unfounded”, noting that this position “will not be affected by international changes.”

The flight is the first direct flight between Israel and Morocco after the two countries normalised relations.

The flight carried an Israeli-American delegation headed by the US president’s advisor and son-in-law Jared Kushner.

READ: The strategic downfall of Morocco’s normalisation