Moroccan King Mohammed VI congratulated Naftali Bennett on his election as Prime Minister, succeeding Benjamin Netanyahu.
The Moroccan monarch sent a message to Bennett on Tuesday, relayed by the official Moroccan press agency.
In this message, King Mohammed VI declared that the Kingdom “pursues its active role and its good offices in favor of a just and lasting peace in the Middle East, capable of guaranteeing all the peoples of the region of live side by side in peace, stability, and harmony.”
On the other hand, it is expected that Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh will be set to arrive in Morocco on Wednesday for his first visit to the North African country upon an invitation from the ruling Justice and Development Party (PJD).
Haniyeh’s visit comes a few months after Morocco normalized relations with Israel in 2020, following the suit of the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Sudan. After Israel’s attacks on Sheikh Jarrah, Al-Aqsa Mosque, and Gaza, PJD officials reacted strongly and announced that they were in solidarity with Hamas and the Palestinians.
Moroccan King Mohammed VI announced on 10 December 2020 that relations with Israel would be established “as soon as possible”. On the same day, US President Donald Trump announced that Morocco and Israel had reached an agreement to establish full diplomatic relations.
With this decision, Morocco became the fourth Arab country to reach a normalization agreement with Israel in 2020, after the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Sudan, and became the first country in the Maghreb region.
Morocco and Israel signed 4 agreements on 22 December 2020 within the scope of normalization of diplomatic relations. Israel also appointed former Egyptian Ambassador David Govrin as the temporary head of the diplomatic mission to Morocco, following the normalization agreement between the two countries on January 11.
