Morocco and Israel to establish diplomatic relations, Trump says https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/israel-morocco-diplomatic-ties/2020/12/10/e9122db2-3b06-11eb-aad9-8959227280c4_story.html?tid=ss_tw
Morocco and Israel to establish diplomatic relations, Trump says

U.S. to recognize Moroccan sovereignty over the long-contested region of Western Sahara.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/israel-morocco-diplomatic-ties/2020/12/10/e9122db2-3b06-11eb-aad9-8959227280c4_story.html?tid=ss_tw
Some initial thoughts: Biden team not likely to be thrilled with this news. US has long supported a UN solution to Western Sahara and been quite hesitant to recognize Moroccan sovereignty there.
Obama (rightly) pushed back on Moroccan human rights abuses in the Sahara, leading to the cancellation of the AFRICAN LION military exercise for the first time. It took direct Obama-King mediation to get relations back on track.
This also complicates US-Algerian relations, which have been very slowly improving in the midst of the political and economic transition in Algeria.
Morocco is getting way more out of this deal than Israel or US - Israel was never as big of deal to Morocco than elsewhere in the region. King has long been more neutral/favorable to Israel than other Arab leaders.
Will be interesting to see if Biden tries to reverse US position on Sahara or just leaves the issue alone.
Plus, goes against Europe - if Biden wants to re-up US-Europe relationship, this issue could be sticky.
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