After a recent signing of a memorandum of understanding between Israel and Morocco, the two countries will cooperate with intelligence and common exercises on sensitive security issues.
Israel does not share many of the threats facing Morocco whose main challenge has come from separatist Polissario Front movement seeking to establish an independent state in Western Sahara, which Rabat claims as its own, and from neighbouring Algeria, which supports PF.
However, Israel and Morocco are both deeply involved in the fight against Islamic Jihadist groups, like Islamic State and Al Qaeda, which perpetrates attacks in Middle East area as well as in Sahel and North Africa.
On the basis of the new-signed memorandum, a number of weapons deals are expected to be implemented, in spite of Israeli officials' declarations about the fact that arms sales will not be the main substance of the relationship between Israel and Morocco. Jerusalem and Rabat resumed diplomatic ties in 2020, as part of US Abraham Accords which stated the US recognition of the Moroccan sovereignty over the disputed territory of western Sahara. Under the same Accords, Israel also normalised relations with UAE, Bahrain and Sudan. Last year has seen a number of joint military exercises between Israeli contingents and troops from UAE and Bahrain, while Morocco has so far not taken part in them.
The two countries first formally developed ties in the early 1990s, cooperating on a number of espionage and military issues that included Morocco allowing Mossad to bug the residences of Arab military commanders who have gathered for a secret meeting in Casablanca, giving Israel vital intelligence ahead of the 1967 Six Day War. In turn, Israeli secret services helped over the abduction of the Moroccan opposition leader, Mehdi Ben Barka, who was then tortured and murdered.
Rabat officially halted its ties with Israel in 2000, during Second Palestinian Intifada, but the two countries secretly maintained contacts through their respective intelligence services over the past 20 years.