Morocco Justice and Development Party refuses its country hosting the Negev Summit 2

Bahrain’s Foreign Minister Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani (L), Egypt’s Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry (2nd L), Israel’s Foreign Minister Yair Lapid (3rd L), US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (3rd R), Morocco’s Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita (2nd R) and UAE’s Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan (R) hold a joint press conference during the Negev Summit in Kibbutz Sde Boker, Israel on March 28, 2022 [Israeli Foreign Ministry/Anadolu Agency]

The Moroccan Justice and Development Party (opposition) refuses its country to host the Negev Summit 2, which includes Israel and 4 other Arab countries.

This came in a brief statement by the Party, commenting on the announcement by Israeli Foreign Minister, Eli Cohen, on 2 January, that Morocco will host, the Negev Summit 2 in March, a meeting between Israel, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt, in addition to the host country and the US.

The statement, issued on Monday evening, said, “The National Council for Justice and Development (the party’s Parliament) announced its total rejection of Morocco hosting any meeting attended by Israel.”

There was no official comment from the Moroccan authorities confirming or denying the Israeli announcement regarding the Negev Summit 2 as of 10:20 (GMT).

READ: Working groups for Negev Forum convene in Abu Dhabi

On 15 September, 2020, Israel, the UAE and Bahrain signed agreements to normalise relations, which the White House called the Abraham Accords. Morocco and Sudan later joined them.

Tel Aviv held the Negev Summit in March 2022 in the city of the Negev in southern Israel, and it included the foreign ministers of Egypt, Morocco, Bahrain, the UAE and the US. The six countries agreed to hold the summit annually.

According to the statement issued by the first summit, it will work on six areas: clean energy, education and peaceful co-existence, food and water security, health, regional security and tourism.

A growing number of countries in the MENA region are normalising ties with Israel – Cartoon [Sabaaneh/MiddleEastMonitor]

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