Israel Quietly Invites Morocco For Joint Military Exercise

 Morocco is coming closer to Israel; this has become evident as the cargo plane was seen landing into Israeli space that was apparently joining Israeli forces into joint military exercises in the coming days. 

The Moroccan Air Force C-130 cargo aircraft was spotted landing by public flight tracking software at Hatzor Air Base in Israel near Ashdod while the Israel Defense forces refused to comment earlier on. 

Finally, the beans were spilled as Israeli military said that, “The IDF cooperates with a variety of foreign nations and militaries, while carrying out exercises, high-level meetings, and joint research and development [projects]. We will not comment on cooperation with a specific country.”

No direct confirmation was given away. Diplomatic relations have not been great between the countries over two decades. After a 20-year lull in diplomatic relations, Israel and Morocco renewed their ties late last year, amid a wave of normalization agreements with other Arab countries.

Meanwhile, a non-profit organization in Israel has tried to bring together young leaders from across the Middle Eastern countries on a cultural exchange programme. Moroccan counterparts have happily engaged in the activity. Strangely, many Middle Eastern nations are now accepting a need to fight the militancy threat to each other, especially that promoted by Iran. This is one reason that we can see Morocco and Israel finding common grounds to collaborate. 

The recent visit by Israel's foreign minister to the United Arab Emirates was a clear signal of this, as he suggested that this was just the start of a road to peace with other Middle East countries, signalling an offer of friendship with Arab states still wary of normalising ties.