King Mohammed VI invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to visit Morocco after recognizing Moroccan sovereignty over the disputed Western Sahara region, calling the move “prudent”, according to an official letter of thanks released by his court on Wednesday.

“You are welcome to visit Morocco at a mutually convenient time, which can be determined through diplomatic channels,” the public letter reads.

The visit “will allow to open up new possibilities for bilateral relations” between Morocco and Israel, the text added.

According to a statement from Mr. Netanyahu’s services released in Jerusalem, Israeli National Security Adviser Tchai Hanegbi and Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita “decided (…) to jointly set the date [σ.σ. της επίσκεψης] in the near future”.

The issue of Western Sahara is “a national issue of the kingdom and a priority of its foreign policy”, Mohammed VI underlined in his letter, excluding the “important decision” which he described as “just and insightful”.

“It is part of the irreversible international dynamic that leads many countries (…) to favor a definitive political solution”, on the basis of “the Moroccan initiative for the autonomy of the Sahara” in the context of “the national sovereignty and territorial integrity of the kingdom”, according to the text.

Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony, is designated a “non-self-governing region” by the UN, absent a definitive settlement of its status.

For almost fifty years, the Moroccan army and the separatists of the Polisario Front, supported by neighboring Algeria, have been at war in this region.

Rabat proposes an autonomy plan, but without challenging Moroccan national sovereignty, while the Polisario demands a UN-sponsored referendum on self-determination. This was envisaged in the ceasefire agreement signed in 1991, but was never implemented.

Morocco is putting intense pressure on its international partners – particularly France, through a relentless media campaign – to recognize the region as its own.

Morocco and Israel normalized their diplomatic relations in December 2020, as part of the so-called Abraham accords, a process of rapprochement between the Jewish state and Arab countries with the strong support of the US.

After normalizing their diplomatic relations, Morocco and Israel have seen an acceleration of their cooperation in various fields — at the levels of the armed forces, security, trade, tourism.

But the process of tightening relations is not exactly unanimously welcomed in Morocco, even more so because at the beginning of the year the most right-wing government in Israel’s history came to power.

Although the mass mobilizations for it have noticeably subsided in the kingdom, the Palestinian cause continues to be viewed with great sympathy by a large part of the Moroccan population.