Morocco deal ‘strategic alliance of knowledge’, says Israel official 

The security cooperation agreement between Israel and Morocco will create a “strategic alliance of knowledge” between the two countries, an Israeli defence official said yesterday.

“Morocco has been fighting terror on a number of fronts over the years, and it is a country that has fought Al-Qaeda and global jihad,” the head of the Political-Military Bureau at Israel’s Ministry of Defence, Zohar Palti, told reporters in the Moroccan capital Rabat.

Israeli Defence Minister, Benny Gantz, began an official week-long visit to Morocco yesterday, which is said to be aimed at bolstering military ties between the two countries.

“We are in the midst of an unprecedented event and one of the high points of the Abraham Accords,” Palti said in reference to the normalisation deals signed between Israel and the UAE, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco last year.

The official pointed out that the agreement would allow Israel to assist Morocco with “whatever they need from us, in accordance — of course — with our own interests.”

“A plane carrying a military delegation, including soldiers in uniform and a ‘defense’ minister that lands in Rabat openly and meets with the military and diplomatic leadership of Morocco; this is an event we have never seen before,” he reiterated.

Israel, Morocco sign defence deal amid normalised ties