On 10 December 2020, King Mohammed VI of Morocco and President Donald Trump held a telephone conversation, followed the same day by statements from them and from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, announcing a new era in relations between Morocco and Israel. It is not the Abraham Accords signed in Washington on 15 September with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, and not the October announcement concerning Sudan.

The same day, the White House issued the Proclamation on Recognizing the Sovereignty of the Kingdom of Morocco over the Western Sahara. The United States recognizes Moroccan sovereignty over the entire Western Sahara territory and reaffirms its support for Morocco's serious, credible and realistic autonomy proposal as the only basis for a just and lasting solution. An independent Sahrawi State is not considered a realistic option. The parties are urged to engage in discussions without delay, using the autonomy plan as the only framework. Washington announces encouragement of economic and social development, including in the territory, and the opening of a consulate in Dakhla.

In the conversation, the King affirmed that Morocco and Israel intend to grant authorizations for direct flights, including by Israeli and Moroccan airline companies, and rights of overflight. Full official contacts were to resume immediately, with the establishment of full diplomatic, peaceful and friendly relations. It is not the 1979 peace treaty with Egypt and not the 1994 treaty with Jordan.

The parties announced dynamic and innovative bilateral economic cooperation: trade, finance and investment, innovation and technology, civil aviation, visas and consular services, tourism, water, agriculture and food security, development, energy and telecommunications, and other sectors as may be agreed. The liaison offices in Rabat and Tel Aviv were to be reopened.

The same conversation restated Morocco's position, described as coherent, constant and unchanged, on the Palestinian question, and the importance of preserving the special status of Jerusalem for the three monotheistic religions, the King speaking as Chairman of the Al-Quds Committee. The special ties with the Moroccan Jewish community in Morocco and throughout the world, including in Israel, were recalled.

The American proclamation is signed Donald J. Trump, by virtue of the Constitution and the laws of the United States, and proclaims that the entire Western Sahara territory is part of the Kingdom of Morocco. The text urges a mutually acceptable negotiated solution within the autonomy proposal, not recognition of a military outcome.

It is not the Joint Declaration signed at Rabat on 22 December by Saad Dine El Otmani, Jared Kushner, Meir Ben-Shabbat and Alon Ushpiz, which records the commitments announced in the conversation. It is not the 2017 United States recognition of sovereignty over Jerusalem.

Image: Royal Palace, Touarga, Rabat; Yair Haklai, 11 October 2019; CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. Cropped to 16:9.

Source consulted: Israel-Morocco normalization agreement. Treaty text: Proclamation on Recognizing the Sovereignty of the Kingdom of Morocco over the Western Sahara, 10 December 2020.