RABAT — Morocco will push for a resumption of
Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations, King Mohammed VI said Monday, almost a
year after his country renewed ties with Israel.
اضافة اعلان
"Morocco will continue its efforts, building on its
position and its excellent relations with all sides and relevant international
actors, to provide the appropriate conditions for a return to the negotiating
table," the monarch said in a televised address.
Morocco renewed official relations with Israel in December
last year, two decades after it cut ties with the outbreak of the second
Palestinian intifada or uprising.
The rapprochement came amid a string of normalization deals
between Israel and Arab countries, brokered by the
Trump administration.
In a speech, delivered on the UN-organized
International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, King Mohammed stressed Morocco's
"total solidarity with the Palestinian people" and its right to an
independent state alongside Israel.
He called for trust-building efforts and urged both sides
"to refrain from actions that obstruct the peace process.”
The king, who heads the Organization of Islamic
Cooperation's Al-Quds committee charged with protecting Muslim holy sites in
Jerusalem, also warned against any attempt to change the city's "juridical,
historic and demographic" status.
Several cities across
Morocco, where public support for the
Palestinian cause is high, saw protests on Monday against the move to
re-establish ties, according to footage posted on social media by Islamist
opposition movement the Justice and Charity Group.
Authorities banned a planned protest in the capital Rabat.
The king's speech came days after an unprecedented visit by
Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz, who signed a wide-ranging security pact with
the kingdom.
Moroccan opposition groups and Palestinian Islamist movement
Hamas condemned the move.
The Fatah movement of Palestinian president
Mahmud Abbas called it "a stab in Jerusalem's back".
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