Morocco follows United Arab Emirates, Sudan, and Bahrain in normalizing diplomatic relations with Israel

Israel and her neighbours seem to have formed a "Peace Agreement of the Month Club" in recent months. First, there was the United Arab Emirates, as reported by Linda Gradstein of VOA News, October 20, 2020:

JERUSALEM - A senior delegation from the United Arab Emirates arrived in Israel for the first official visit since the two countries signed a peace agreement last month. They signed a series of bilateral agreements, including a visa waiver agreement.

A very happy Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed the UAE delegation, saying “today we are making history.”

"The enthusiasm for this peace agreement among our people is enormous. It’s real, it’s broad, it’s deep, and it reflects the potential that is realized today," said Netanyahu.

One of the agreements says that Israelis will not need visas to visit the UAE, and Emiratis can visit Israel freely as well. With direct flights expected to start by January, the Israeli tourist industry, which has been hit hard by COVID-19, hopes for 250,000 Emiratis to visit a year. Some Israeli tour companies are already marketing trips to Abu Dhabi and Dubai.

The two also inaugurated a three-billion dollar trilateral fund among Israel, the UAE and the US to encourage investment.

For Netanyahu, the UAE’s short delegation visit was a welcome break from his electoral woes. His popularity has plummeted amid criticism of his handling of the pandemic, and his trial on several charge of corruption is set to start in January.

President Trump also hopes the accord, which was signed last month in Washington, will give him an electoral boost. US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the accords could transform the Middle East.

"The Abraham Accords established direct economic ties between two of the Middle East’s most thriving and advanced economies," said Mnuchin. "These ties create a tremendous foundation for economic growth, opportunity, innovation and prosperity."

For the UAE, Israel offers high tech innovation and business opportunities. UAE Minister of State for Financial Affairs Obaid Huamid Al Tayer said both countries offer opportunities."The UAE will continue to be a regional leader in terms of economic reform, openness in international trade, political stability and peacemaking," said Al Tayer.

"The economic cooperation in finance and investment will be realized after signing today the agreement for the promotion and protection of investment.

Because of COVID-19, the delegation did not leave the area of the airport. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu invited them back for a sightseeing trip when the pandemic passes.

Then there was Sudan; see my post Israel and Sudan agree to normalize relations (October 23, 2020).

Bahrain was next; as reported by France 24, November 18, 2020:

Bahrain and Israel said on Wednesday they would open embassies, establish online visa systems and launch weekly flights between the countries soon, in a broadened cooperation promoted by Washington as an economic boon and means of isolating Iran.

On the first official visit by Bahraini officials to Israel, the Gulf kingdom’s foreign minister, Abdellatif al-Zayani, was welcomed Wednesday at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion airport by his Israeli counterpart Gabi Ashkenazi, a live Israeli television broadcast showed.

Bahrain and its Gulf neighbour the United Arab Emirates both signed US-sponsored normalisation accords with Israel at the White House on September 15, pacts that were condemned as a "betrayal" by the Palestinians and their allies.

The agreements shattered a longstanding Arab consensus that there should be no normalisation with Israel until it reaches a comprehensive peace deal with the Palestinians.

The Bahraini envoys went on to Jerusalem, which Israel, with US backing, considers its capital. Palestinians, who want East Jerusalem for a state, have been outraged by the Arab countries' engagement with Israel while their own goals are unmet.

In a possible sign of a rethink, a senior Palestinian official told Reuters that Palestinian ambassadors would return to Abu Dhabi and Manama after having been recalled in protest.

Al-Zayani's trip coincided with a visit to Israel by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who hailed the regional rapprochement brokered by the Trump administration as it presses sanctions against Iran.

The normalisation deals "tell malign actors like the Islamic Republic of Iran that their influence in the region is waning and that they are ever more isolated and shall forever be until they change their direction", Pompeo said alongside his Bahraini counterpart and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Al-Zayani announced that, as of December 1, Bahrainis and Israelis will be able to apply online for entry visas. He also submitted a request to open a Bahraini embassy in Israel and said an Israeli embassy had been approved for Manama.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gabi Askenazi, who is due to visit Manama next month, said he hoped opening ceremonies for the embassies would be held by the end of 2020.

Sudan followed Bahrain and UAE in announcing last month it would move towards ties with Israel...

...The United States has very close relations with Bahrain too. The tiny but strategic kingdom just across the Gulf from Iran is home to the US Fifth Fleet.

All three allies – Israel, Bahrain and the US – see the mainly Shiite Muslim regional power Iran as a common threat.

Al-Zayani's visit is expected to be followed by others.

On Tuesday, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin sent an official invitation to Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayad Al-Nahyan, seen by many as the UAE's de facto ruler.

The latest to join the club is Morocco; as reported by Steve Holland of Reuters, December 10, 2020:

WASHINGTON -Israel and Morocco agreed on Thursday to normalize relations in a deal brokered with U.S. help, making Morocco the fourth Arab country to set aside hostilities with Israel in the past four months.

It joins the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Sudan in beginning to forge deals with Israel, driven in part by U.S.-led efforts to present a united front against Iran and roll back Tehran’s regional influence.

In a departure from longstanding U.S. policy, President Donald Trump agreed as part of the deal to recognize Morocco’s sovereignty over the Western Sahara, a desert region where a decades-old territorial dispute has pitted Morocco against the Algeria-backed Polisario Front, a breakaway movement that seeks to establish an independent state...

...Trump sealed the Israel-Morocco accord in a phone call with Morocco’s King Mohammed VI on Thursday, the White House said.

“Another HISTORIC breakthrough today! Our two GREAT friends Israel and the Kingdom of Morocco have agreed to full diplomatic relations – a massive breakthrough for peace in the Middle East!” Trump wrote on Twitter.

Mohammed told Trump that Morocco intends to facilitate direct flights for Israeli tourists to and from Morocco, according to a statement from Morocco’s royal court.

“This will be a very warm peace. Peace has never - the light of peace on this Hanukkah day has never - shone brighter than today in the Middle East,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement, referring to a Jewish eight-day holiday starting on Thursday night.

Palestinians have been critical of the normalization deals, saying Arab countries have set back the cause of peace by abandoning a longstanding demand that Israel give up land for a Palestinian state before it can receive recognition.

Egypt and UAE issued statements welcoming Morocco’s decision. Egypt and Israel signed a peace treaty in 1979.

“This step, a sovereign move, contributes to strengthening our common quest for stability, prosperity, and just and lasting peace in the region,” Abu Dhabi’s crown prince, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, wrote on Twitter.

But Senator Jim Inhofe, the Republican chairman of the U.S. Senate’s Armed Services Committee, denounced Trump’s “shocking and deeply disappointing” decision to recognize Morocco’s sovereignty over Western Sahara. Inhofe said people living in the area should vote in a referendum to decide their future.

“The president has been poorly advised by his team. He could have made this deal without trading the rights of a voiceless people,” Inhofe said in a statement.

A senior U.S. official said Trump knew about Inhofe’s opposition to recognizing Morocco’s sovereignty over Western Sahara. But Inhofe’s argument lost ground with the president when the senator refused to hold up the annual defense spending bill when Trump demanded it be used to repeal a law granting liability protection to tech companies, the official said...

...Under the agreement, Morocco will establish full diplomatic relations and resume official contacts with Israel.

“They are going to reopen their liaison offices in Rabat and Tel Aviv immediately with the intention to open embassies. And they are going to promote economic cooperation between Israeli and Moroccan companies,” Kushner told Reuters.

Trump’s agreement to change U.S. policy on the Western Sahara was the linchpin for getting Morocco’s agreement and a major shift away from a mostly neutral stance.

In Rabat, Morocco’s royal court said Washington will open a consulate in Western Sahara as part of Morocco’s deal with Israel.

A White House proclamation said the United States believes that an independent Sahrawi state is “not a realistic option for resolving the conflict and that genuine autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty is the only feasible solution.”

“We urge the parties to engage in discussions without delay, using Morocco’s autonomy plan as the only framework to negotiate a mutually acceptable solution,” it said.

Washington had supported a 1991 ceasefire between Morocco and the Western Sahara’s Polisario Front independence movement that called for a referendum to resolve the issue. Last month, after a border incident, the Polisario pulled out of that deal and announced a return to armed struggle.

A representative of the Polisario Front said it “regrets highly” the U.S. change in policy, which it called “strange but not surprising.”

“This will not change an inch of the reality of the conflict and the right of the people of Western Sahara to self determination,” the Polisario’s Europe representative Oubi Bchraya said.

For further reading, see Joel Rosenberg's views: Peace on earth? Arab-Israeli peace deals seem like Hanukkah miracles (December 15, 2020).