Morocco boosts military ties with Israel despite tensions

It has been just over five years since Israel and Morocco established diplomatic relations on the basis of the US-brokered normalization agreements, the Abraham Accords.

By signing the deal, Morocco effectively abandoned the conditions of the Arab Peace Initiative formulated by Saudi Arabia in 2002. That initiative had proposed a comprehensive peace treaty between Israel and the entire Arab world, albeit conditional on several requirements, such as Israel's withdrawal from the territories occupied since the Six-Day War in June 1967, as well as the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.

Along with the United Arab Emirates, Sudan and Bahrain, Morocco has cultivated normal diplomatic relations with Israel for half a decade, a process initiated by the first Trump administration.

Now, both countries are taking things a step further: at their third Joint Military Committee meeting in Tel Aviv earlier in January, they signed a joint military "work plan" for 2026.

Recent talks have focused on strategic discussions, IDF unit visits, and coordination on shared security objectives, according to a statement by the Israeli army on X.

According to Steven Höfner, head of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation's office in Morocco, the meeting focused on future technologies in addition to further technological deliveries from Israel to Morocco. "Both partners now want to develop not only drones but also joint air defense systems, including joint satellite technology," he told DW, adding that "this is a significant step forward in terms of quality."

Morocco has been one of the world's biggest arms importers for years. In the global ranking by the internationally recognized research institute SIPRI for 2024, the country ranks 31st, although total imports have fallen by a good quarter in recent years. Particularly noteworthy: between 2020 and 2024, Israel was Morocco's third-largest arms supplier after the US and France.

According to SIPRI, Morocco mainly imports armored vehicles, missiles, air defense systems, and military aircraft. While American and French deliveries mainly fall into these categories, Israel primarily supplies air defense and unmanned systems. At least 51% of the defense missiles supplied to Morocco are reportedly coming from Israel. In addition, Morocco is massively expanding its drone production with Israeli support.

The cooperation between Morocco and Israel also has regional implications, says Simon Wolfgang Fuchs, an Islamic scholar at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He refers to the ongoing tensions between Morocco and Algeria, which are fueled by Morocco's claim on the Western Sahara region.

"Morocco consistently pursues the goal of asserting its claim  to sovereignty over Western Sahara in its foreign policy," Fuchs told DW.

The Abraham Accords have dealt Rabat an important success in this regard. "The fact that Israel recognized this sovereignty, in addition to the US and several Western European countries, was an important success for Morocco," he said.

However, this has angered Algier, which supports the independence-seeking Polisario people in the Western Sahara.

Moreover, increased ties between Morocco and Israel also carry another significance, Fuchs points out. "Through imports from Israel, Morocco has also greatly modernized its military and is now clearly superior to the Algerian army," he said.

However, there are also reports that Algeria possesses Russian weapons that are intended to give the country a continued advantage over Morocco, including Iskander missiles and multi-role fighter jets.

Five years ago, the new ties were met with relatively little resistance in Moroccan society, Steven Höfner said. In part, this was due to Morocco's long-standing unofficial, intensive relations with Israel. "This is due to the fact that many Israelis have Moroccan roots," he told DW.

It is also due to the fact that Morocco, unlike other Arab states in the 1950s and 1960s, never conducted a large-scale systematic expulsion of Jews. "As a result, relations between the two societies have always been less strained than elsewhere in the Arab world," says Höfner.

Nevertheless, there have been repeated large-scale protests in Morocco against Israel's war in Gaza and notable levels of solidarity with the Palestinians among the general population. The ruling royal family has had to take these factors into account, he said.

The war in Gaza also left its mark on another level, Fuchs points out. "There were high expectations for Israeli tourists in Rabat but these expectations were not fulfilled," he notes. Since the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, and the ensuing two-year war in Gaza, direct flights between the two countries have been suspended.

But still, Israel has significant economic interests in Morocco, Fuchs said. For example, in the agricultural sector. "Israeli irrigation techniques are in high demand in Morocco, as well as methods for growing crops even in extremely dry areas," he told DW, adding that these are attractive business opportunities for Israeli companies.

Moreover, Israel is interested in Morocco's phosphate deposits, which could play an important role in fertilizer production for Israeli agriculture.

This article was originally written in German.