Morocco invites Israel’s Netanyahu to visit, in possible opening to deeper ties

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday received an invitation from King Mohammed VI to visit Morocco, said Mr. Netanyahu’s office, laying the ground for the first such high-level visit since the two countries normalised relations in late 2020 and heralding a possible deepening of diplomatic and security ties.

No date has been set yet for the visit, but Israel’s national security adviser and Morocco’s Foreign Minister have agreed to coordinate on a date for the visit “in the near future”, Straits Times reports citing Mr. Netanyahu’s office.

The news was likely to give Mr. Netanyahu a boost, even as the policies of his right-wing government – including increased settlement construction in the occupied West Bank and a more aggressive stance toward the Palestinians – have caused tension in the region.

The exchange between the King and Mr. Netanyahu also appeared to signal an easing of recent tensions between Morocco and Israel.

Morocco had postponed a long-awaited diplomatic summit with Israel this summer in protest against the settlement policy of Mr. Netanyahu’s hardline government and amid eruptions of Israeli-Palestinian violence in the occupied West Bank.

King Mohammed wrote to Mr. Netanyahu that a meeting between them could be “an opportunity to promote the prospects of peace for all peoples in the region”, based on the principles that “should guide the settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict”.