Israel justice minister in Morocco to sign legal cooperation deal

Israeli Justice Minister Gideon Sa’ar yesterday started an official visit to Morocco during which he is set to sign a memorandum of legal cooperation with Rabat, Anadolu reported.

Sa’ar wrote on Facebook that he is travelling to Rabat to meet political and security officials and heads of the Jewish communities.

Israeli Ambassador to Morocco David Govrin tweeted: “We welcome Mr Sa’ar, on his first official visit to Morocco, at the invitation of his Moroccan counterpart, Mr Abdellatif Wehbe.”

“The two parties are expected to sign a joint declaration for legal cooperation between the two countries to modernize and digitize legal systems.”

Govrin also announced another upcoming visit, by Regional Cooperation Minister Issawi Freij, who will “meet with several Moroccan ministers.”

Aviv Kohavi, chief of general staff of the Israeli army, visited Morocco last week and discussed joint projects in the field of defence industries.

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At the end of November 2021, Israel and Morocco signed a security memorandum of understanding during the first visit of Defence Minister Benny Gantz to Rabat, with the aim of putting in place intelligence cooperation, security procurement and joint training.

At the time, the Times of Israel news website said that this was the first agreement of its kind between Tel Aviv and any Arab country.

This comes after Israel and Morocco announced the resumption of diplomatic relations in December 2020. Morocco is the fourth Arab country to agree to normalisation with the occupation state of Israel in 2020, after the UAE, Bahrain and Sudan, while Egypt and Jordan signed peace agreements with Israel in 1979 and 1994 respectively.