Israeli Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Aviv Kohavi kicked off Tuesday a three-day visit to Morocco, in the first trip by an Israeli military commander to the north African nation.
Kohavi’s visit is aimed at bolstering bilateral military and security cooperation.
He arrived in Morocco on Monday evening and first met with Inspector General of the Royal Armed Forces Lieutenant General Belkhir El Farouk, Commander of the southern region, at the headquarters of the Royal Armed Forces in Rabat.
Kohavi also met with Defense Minister Abdellatif Loudiyi and is scheduled to hold talks with other senior military officials.
He had stated that this trip is part of the Israeli army’s overall efforts to broaden military cooperation with other countries.
Morocco had severed relations with Israel in 2000 following the eruption of the second Palestinian intifada, but re-established ties two decades later in a deal that saw Washington recognize Rabat’s sovereignty over the disputed Western Sahara.
Since then, a steady stream of Moroccan and Israeli officials have visited each others’ countries and signed cooperation deals in various fields.
They included Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz, who on a visit to the kingdom in November last year, signed a security agreement making it easier for Rabat to acquire high-tech exports from Israel’s defense industry.
In June, Israeli military observers for the first time attended the annual “African Lion” military exercise - vast drills involving thousands of personnel from several nations, co-organized by Morocco and the United States.
And in March 2021, an Israeli army delegation met with Moroccan officers in Rabat, in the first visit of its kind since the 2020 normalization deal brokered by the administration of former US President Donald Trump, signing a military cooperation agreement.
