RABAT (Dispatches) – The Zionist regime’s foreign minister landed in Morocco on Wednesday for the first visit by a senior official from the occupying regime since the two sides agreed to sign a controversial normalization deal last year.
Yair Lapid is scheduled to meet on Wednesday with his Moroccan counterpart, Nasser Bourita, and open a diplomatic representation on Thursday in the capital Rabat.
The occupying regime and Morocco normalized ties last year after then U.S. president Donald Trump recognized Morocco’s contested sovereignty in Western Sahara.
Morocco was the fourth Arab state to establish ties with the regime last year after the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Sudan.
The move infuriated the Palestinians as it shattered the longstanding Arab consensus that there should be no normalization until the Zionist regime agrees to a comprehensive and lasting solution.
The announcement in December sparked uproar in Morocco, where several protests were held to denounce the move.
In May, thousands of Moroccans marched in cities across the country to denounce the 11-day Zionist bombardment of the besieged Gaza Strip, with the ruling Justice and Development Party demanding the closure of the occupying regime’s liaison office.
Morocco and the Zionist regime maintained liaison offices in the 1990s, before closing them during the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising, that raged from 2000 to 2005.
Lapid’s visit to Rabat follows a June trip to the United Arab Emirates, where he inaugurated the new embassy of the occupying regime in Abu Dhabi.