Washington: In a related major policy shift, the United States has agreed to recognise Morocco’s claim over the long-disputed Western Sahara region as part of a Trump administration deal in which Israel and Morocco have agreed to normalise relations.
The agreement, in President Donald Trump’s final weeks in office, is his fourth Arab-Israeli accord in four months.
It adds to Trump’s Middle East legacy just as Democrat Joe Biden prepares to assume the presidency in January with an eye toward revamping America’s policies in the region, from Israel to Iran, Iraq and beyond. With Israel, Biden has pledged to return to a more traditional US position, particularly regarding the Palestinians and their aspirations for statehood.
Trump said Israel and Morocco would restore diplomatic and other ties, including the immediate reopening of liaison offices in Tel Aviv and Rabat, the eventual opening of embassies and joint overflight rights for the two nations’ airlines.
The agreement builds on one of his main foreign policy accomplishments, winning broader recognition of Israel in the Arab world under the rubric of the “Abraham Accords”. For Morocco, it’s a major achievement, too: US recognition of its claim to Western Sahara, something not recognised by the United Nations and the subject of an international dispute for decades.
Read the article by Matthew Lee in The Sydney Morning Herald.