Israel and Morocco bolstered military ties during meetings on Tuesday between the Jewish state’s army chief and Moroccan defense officials in the kingdom, amid tension with Algeria.
Israeli Chief of General Staff of the Israel Defense Forces Aviv Kohavi, who arrived on Monday, met with Moroccan Royal Armed Forces Inspector General Belkhir el-Farouk, an Israeli army statement said.
Kohavi also met with Abdellatif Loudiyi, Morocco’s minister delegate in charge of defense administration, and Brahim Hassani, Morocco’s head of intelligence, the statement said.
Photo: AFP / HO / RAF
During the discussions, the Moroccan side said that it had “interest in jointly setting up industrial defense projects in Morocco,” the kingdom’s army chief said in a separate statement.
“The meetings discussed opportunities for military cooperation, both in exercises and training, as well as in the operational and intelligence fields,” it said.
Morocco cut relations with Israel in 2000 following the outbreak of the second Palestinian intifada, but re-established ties two decades later in a deal that saw Washington recognize Rabat’s sovereignty over the disputed Western Sahara.
Since then, a steady stream of Moroccan and Israeli officials have visited each others’ countries and signed cooperation deals.
They have included Israeli Minister of Defense Benny Gantz, who on a visit to the kingdom in November last year signed a security agreement making it easier for Rabat to acquire high-tech exports from Israel’s defense industry.
Last month, Israeli military observers for the first time attended the annual “African Lion” military exercise — drills involving thousands of personnel from several nations co-organized by Morocco and the US.
In March, an Israeli army delegation met with Moroccan officers in Rabat, in the first visit of its kind since the 2020 normalization deal, signing a military cooperation agreement.
The North African kingdom’s mending of relations with Israel reignited its rivalry with Algeria, which in August last year cut diplomatic ties with Rabat.
Algiers cited “hostile acts” and Morocco’s relations — including on military and security issues — with “the Zionist entity,” referring to Israel.
Morocco considers the Western Sahara an integral part of the kingdom, while the Algeria-backed Polisario Front seeks an independence referendum there.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was