TEL AVIV, 17 November 2021, (TON): His office said “Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz will visit Rabat later this month to sign security cooperation agreements with his Moroccan counterpart.”

It will be the first trip to the North African country by an Israeli defense minister and the first time such bilateral agreements are signed with an Arab state.

In Israel, the assessment is that Rabat is interested in signing the security deals due to its tensions with Algeria, as the agreements will allow Morocco to procure various military items from Israel and hold joint training exercises out in the open.

Algeria formally broke off diplomatic relations with neighboring Morocco in August, citing a series of alleged hostile acts including Rabat’s recent rapprochement with Jerusalem.

Morocco was one of four Arab countries that agreed to normalize ties with Israel last year under the so-called Abraham Accords brokered by former US President Donald Trump’s administration, along with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Sudan.