In New York, Gideon Sa'ar and Nasser Bourita agreed to raise liaison missions to embassies and name ambassadors. Al-Monitor says the 22 December 2020 declaration was reaffirmed, while Al Jazeera says direct flights, including Israeli and Moroccan airlines, are due back before the end of 2026.
Geopolitics··Morning
A New York meeting lifts the posts to embassy rank
Al Jazeera reported that Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar and Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita agreed on Wednesday in New York, at a meeting hosted by US ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz, to raise diplomatic missions to embassy level and appoint ambassadors. A trilateral joint statement cited in that report said the sides would take the steps needed to restore direct commercial flights, including by Israeli and Moroccan airlines, before the end of 2026.[1]
Liaison offices had been the ceiling since 2020
Rosaleen Carroll writes in Al-Monitor that the trilateral meeting preceded the UN General Assembly and that a joint statement reaffirmed the 22 December 2020 Morocco-US-Israel declaration. Morocco restored ties in 2020 but kept missions at liaison level after Rabat had suspended the 1994 channel in 2000. Carroll notes Royal Air Maroc halted Casablanca-Tel Aviv flights after 7 October 2023.[2]
Ambassadors and flights are the next written steps
Al Jazeera's New York readout and Al-Monitor's account of the 2020 declaration describe one upgrade: full embassies and named ambassadors, with commercial flights treated as part of the same package rather than a separate later file. Neither report says the ambassadors are already in post or that the Casablanca-Tel Aviv route has resumed.[1], [2]
