Morocco and Israel signed, on Thursday, their first cooperation agreement in the field of cyber defense.
The head of the Israeli diplomatic mission in Rabat, David Govrin, explained in a tweet that the agreement provides for the establishment of cooperation in “the fields of research, development, and cybersecurity.”
The agreement was signed in the presence of Ygal Unna, the Director-General of the Israeli cyber directorate, and his Moroccan counterpart, General Mustafa Rabii.
Until now, Moroccan authorities did not issue any statement regarding the deal.
Low-level relations between Rabat and Tel Aviv started after the Oslo Agreement was signed between the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Israel in 1993, but Morocco stopped these relations in 2002 after the outbreak of the 2nd Intifada.
Moroccan King Mohammed VI announced on December 10, 2020, that relations with Israel would be established “as soon as possible.” On the same day, former US President Donald Trump announced that Morocco and Israel had reached an agreement to establish full diplomatic relations and signed a declaration on the recognition of Moroccan sovereignty in Western Sahara.
With this decision, Morocco became the fourth Arab country to reach a normalization agreement with Israel in the last few months, after the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Sudan, while also being the first country to do so in the Maghreb region.
Morocco and Israel had signed four agreements on December 22, 2020, within the scope of the normalization of diplomatic relations.
