Moroccan PM: Normalization with Israel is Rejected

Moroccan Prime Minister Saadeddine Othmani rejected any normalization of relations with Israel, according to media reports.

Speaking to a meeting of the Islamist-oriented Justice and Development Party, to which he belongs, Othmani said that Morocco rejects any normalization with the "Zionist entity" because this strengthens its position in continuing to violate the rights of the Palestinian people.

The Moroccan premier's statements come ahead of a visit by Jared Kushner, senior advisor to U.S. President Donald Trump and his son-in-law, to the region, and after the U.A.E. and Israel reached an agreement to normalize relations.

"The position of Morocco, the king, the government and the people, is to defend the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people and the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, and reject any process of circumventing the rights of Palestinians and people of Jerusalem, the Arabism and Islam of Al-Aqsa Mosque and Al-Quds," Othmani added.

The Moroccan official added that "These are red lines for Morocco as a king, government and people, and this entails rejecting all concessions that are made in this field.

He stressed that “We also reject every process of normalization with the Zionist entity." 

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"Every process of normalization with the Zionist entity is a push for it and an incentive to increase its violation of the rights of the Palestinian people and circumvent these rights that the entire Islamic nation considers concerned with and defending them."

The Moroccan King Mohammed VI is the head of the "Jerusalem Committee" of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.

His father, the late King Hassan II, was its president as well. Morocco's official position is to support the two-state solution with the establishment of a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.

However, the Kingdom and Israel previously established low-level relations in 1993, after reaching a peace agreement between the Palestinians and the Hebrew state. 

Rabat froze relations with Tel Aviv after the outbreak of the Palestinian Intifada in 2000.