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Normalization agreement with Morocco
Trump's revenge, Netanyahu's disappointment: This is how the announcement of the agreement with Morocco was born
A senator close to the president, Jim Inhof, has blocked US recognition of Moroccan sovereignty in Western Sahara.
A week ago, the relationship between the two ran aground, and the angry Trump gave his advisers the green light.
Israel was updated, but the prime minister was disappointed that he did not participate in the conversation between Trump and the King of Morocco
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Morocco
United States
Donald Trump
Jared Kushner
Benjamin Netanyahu
Lightning Ravid
Friday, 11 December 2020, 18:10
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Netanyahu on the agreement with Morocco: "This is a great light for Israel in honor of Hanukkah, thank you to President Trump" (Photo: GPO)
An explosion in relations between US President Donald Trump and senior Republican Sen. Jim Inhof led to a breakthrough that allowed the Moroccan announcement to establish full diplomatic relations with Israel, according to US sources involved.
Inhofen, who heads the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee, is Washington's biggest supporter of the Polisario Front - the national liberation movement of the Sahrawi rebels that has set itself the goal of ending the Moroccan occupation of Western Sahara.
Inhofen has traveled to Algeria many times in recent years for meetings with the Polisario leadership.
Inhofen was one of the closest senators to President Trump.
In the past two years he has blocked several attempts to promote American recognition of Moroccan sovereignty in Western Sahara when he asked President Trump not to do so.
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One of the senators close to the president.
Trump and Inhofen, June (Photo: Reuters)
Trump's top adviser, Jared Kushner, and White House envoy Avi Berkowitz have been in talks with the Barbat administration for the past two years over a deal that would include American recognition of Western Sahara as part of Morocco in exchange for normalization with Israel.
The original idea for such a deal came from a group of former Israeli officials headed by former deputy head of the Mossad Ram Ben-Barak.
The latter was involved in business in Morocco along with a Moroccan-Jewish businessman named Yariv Elbaz, who controls a large part of the country's food business and is close to Foreign Minister Nasser Burita.
During 2018, Ben-Barak and Elbaz turned to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's advisers, White House envoy Jason Greenblatt and Burita at the time, and came up with the idea of a deal for American recognition of Western Sahara as part of Morocco in exchange for normalization with Israel.
The deal has not yet progressed, but channels of communication have been established between Elbaz and Netanyahu's advisers and Trump's advisers, and especially Kushner.
King of Morocco Muhammad VI hosts Kushner Basla, May 2019 (Photo: AP)
In May 2019 Kushner visited Morocco.
Elbaz took him and members of the White House "Peace Team" to visit the Jewish cemetery in Casablanca and hosted them at his home.
During that visit Kushner met with King Muhammad VI.
The king raised at the meeting the issue of American recognition of Western Sahara as part of Morocco.
The meeting clarified to Kushner how important the issue is to the Moroccan government.
After the visit, a direct channel of communication was established between Kushner and the White House staff and Foreign Minister Burita.
The Moroccan foreign minister even visited the White House a few weeks later for follow-up talks.
He met separately with Kushner and his wife Ivanka Trump, the president's daughter.
In both meetings, Burita raised the issue of Western Sahara.
Following Burita's visit, Kushner decided to start rolling out the initiative.
Israel encouraged from afar
The Israeli government was not directly involved in the talks between the Americans and the Moroccans but recognized them and encouraged the White House to move forward on this path.
Netanyahu's advisers, and especially National Security Adviser Meir Ben-Shabbat, who was in direct contact with the Moroccans, hoped that American recognition of their sovereignty in the Sahara would lead them to agree to normalization with Israel.
More than a year ago, Kushner and Berkowitz reached an agreement with Burita on a Western Sahara deal in exchange for normalization.
But Senator Inhof, along with White House National Security Adviser John Bolton at the time, vehemently opposed the move.
Trump, who was very close to Inhofen and needed his political support, accepted his position and the agreement with the Moroccans did not materialize.
Reached an agreement with Trump advisers more than a year ago.
Burita (Photo: Reuters)
The dramatic change took place a week ago.
Sources close to the matter said that the relationship between Trump and Inhofen ran aground around the negotiations on the defense budget law. Trump demanded that Einhof include a section in the law that includes sanctions against Facebook and Twitter in light of the fight he is waging against the two companies. The
senator rejected the president's two requests. The two had a very difficult phone call that went as far as shouting. During the conversation, Inhof said to Trump: "This is the only way. we we can pass this law. "he refused to talk further about the demands of the president. Trump raging out attacks against a series of tweets against Inhofe. he claimed the Republican senator hits the national security of the United States threatened to veto the law.
sources lessons on the subject said that the chief of staff Of Trump, Mark Maddos, Kushner and Berkowitz recognized the explosion between Trump and Inhofen and saw it as an opportunity to advance the deal with Morocco.They raised the issue with Trump and the president, who will leave the White House next month, gave them the green light to move forward.Kushner and Berkowitz turned to Burita And asked if
Morocco is still interested in a deal agreed upon last year.
Burita replied in the affirmative.
Did not like some of the wording in the Moroccan post.
Netanyahu (Photo: Yonatan Zindel, Flash 90)
Israel was updated on the details but surprisingly Prime Minister Netanyahu was not satisfied.
A senior Israeli official said that Netanyahu did not like some of the wording in the announcement that the Moroccans were supposed to publish regarding normalization with Israel, and was disappointed that he was not invited to participate in the phone call between President Trump and the King of Morocco.
The Prime Minister's Office denied that Netanyahu was disappointed.
Another person who was not happy was Senator Inhof.
On Thursday after the White House announcement, Inhofen delivered a speech in the Senate plenum saying he was shocked and disappointed by Trump's decision.
He added that he was saddened that the United States had decided to trade in the rights of Western Sahara residents.
More on Walla!
NEWS
U.S. recognition of sovereignty over Western Sahara is Morocco's grand prize
To the full article
Dramatic policy change, historic political achievement
The Trump administration's recognition of Western Sahara as part of Morocco's sovereign territory is a dramatic American policy change and a historic political achievement for Moroccans.
Until 1975 Western Sahara was under Spanish control.
When the Spaniards left, Morocco occupied the territory, expelled some of the local residents who moved to refugee camps and established settlements in which more than one hundred thousand Moroccan citizens settled.
In 1979 Morocco annexed Western Sahara.
45 years of conflict have occurred in Western Sahara rounds of violence alongside rounds of negotiations, without significant progress. Morocco refuses to grant independence to Western Sahara and agreed only autonomy. No country in the world recognizes Moroccan occupation and the EU also condemns the Moroccans regularly.
Recently broke in Western Sahara Fighting between Moroccan military forces and rebels from the Polarisario, and several Arab states, including the United Arab Emirates and Jordan, have announced the opening of consulates in Western Sahara - in recognition of the fact that it is part of Morocco.
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