2023-06-05 22:06:29
Defense
Maneuvers in Morocco with Israeli soldiers for the first time
Israeli soldiers will participate “actively” for the first time in maneuvers on Moroccan soil, the international exercise “African Lion 2023”, the largest on the continent, from Tuesday.
Updated
The second international exercise “African Lion” photographed on June 30, 2022 in Morocco.
“A delegation of 12 soldiers and commanders from the Golani Reconnaissance Battalion left Sunday (Israel) for the ‘African Lion 2023’ exercise in Morocco,” the host country said in an Israeli statement released on Monday. “This is the first time that the Israeli army has taken an active part in these international maneuvers on Moroccan soil,” the statement said. The Golani Brigade is an elite infantry unit, regularly engaged in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Co-organized by Morocco and the United States, the 19th edition of the “African Lion” exercise must mobilize until June 16 nearly 8,000 soldiers from 18 countries.
“For the next two weeks, our soldiers will focus on training in different combat situations that combine urban guerrilla warfare and underground warfare, culminating in a joint exercise for all participating armies,” the Israeli military statement said.
Israel had already participated in “African Lion” last year but only at the level of international military observers, without deploying soldiers on the ground.
According to the general staff of the Moroccan Royal Armed Forces (FAR), these annual maneuvers will take place in seven regions of the Maghreb country. They include exercises in operational planning and the fight against weapons of mass destruction, tactical land, sea, air and special forces training, as well as airborne operations, according to the FAR.
Accelerated cooperation
Morocco and Israel have been working to accelerate their cooperation – military, security, trade and tourism – since the normalization of their relations in December 2020, within the framework of the Abraham Accords, a process between the Jewish state and several Arab countries, supported by Washington. In return, Rabat obtained from Washington the recognition of “Moroccan sovereignty” over the territory of Western Sahara against the separatists of the Polisario Front supported by Algiers.
After Israeli Transport Minister Miri Regev, Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana is expected in Morocco on Wednesday for a “historic” official visit, the first by a head of the Israeli parliament, at the invitation of his counterpart Rachid Talbi El Alami. Amir Ohana, former Israeli Minister of Internal Security and member of Likud, the right-wing party of Benjamin Netanyahu, is of Moroccan origin.
However, the all-out rapprochement between the two allied countries is coming up against, at least in public opinion, the accession to power in Israel of ultra-nationalist currents, hostile to any resumption of talks with the Palestinians. If the militant mobilization has weakened, the Palestinian cause continues to arouse immense sympathy in the Moroccan population.
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