Trump reaches normalization between Morocco and Israel by recognizing annexation of Western Sahara

Last week's most significant international event was Morocco's decision to re-establish diplomatic relations with Israel. These events were first announced on December 10 by US President Donald Trump.

After that Mohammed VI, King of Morocco, announced that he would resume official contacts and re-establish diplomatic relations with Israel in the near future.

As we know, after several wars, relations between Israel and the Arab (Islamic) countries became very tense. Only two Arab countries were able to reach a normalization with Israel - Egypt in 1979 and Jordan in 1994. As of December 10 this year, 29 UN member states have not recognized Israeli statehood. In addition, eight of them (i.e. Iran, etc.) deny their entry visa to any citizen of another country if they have an Israeli visa or passport stamp from entry to Israel, and do not allow an Israeli passport to be used in their country's aviation transit zones.

No matter how much the US President is criticized, there is one area in which he has succeeded in normalizing international relations and easing tensions. US presidential diplomacy broke the consensus between Arab and Islamic states on not recognizing Israeli statehood, and four Arab countries have already established diplomatic relations with Israel. On August 13 this year, the United Arab Emirates and on September 11, Bahrain established diplomatic relations with Israel. On 23 October, Sudan signed an agreement with Israel on the normalization of relations. Morocco is now added to this list.

However, at the same time, Donald Trump's "payment" for Morocco's secession from the common Arab front against Israel was announced: the US president recognized Morocco's sovereignty over the entire territory of Western Sahara.

Until 1974, Western Sahara was a Spanish colony. Following the death of General Franco, the Spanish government promised to hold an independence referendum in Western Sahara. However, as early as November 1974, northern part of Western Sahara was occupied by the Moroccan army and southern part by the Mauritanian army. The armed movement POLISARIO front continued to fight against the Spanish colonizers, but already with the Moroccan and Mauritanian armies. In the territory controlled by the POLISARIO front, the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic was established on 27 February 1976 and officially recognized by 84 UN member states. The Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic was admitted to the African Union, became an official member of the Non-Aligned Movement, and so on. Morocco was excluded from the African Union in 1984 due to the annexation of Western Sahara. For more than thirty years, Morocco has been politically isolated, but gradually more and more national governments have chosen to at least recognize that Morocco actually has power over Western Sahara. As a result, Morocco's membership of the African Union was renewed in 2017, but most of the countries that had once recognized the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic had already withdrawn or frozen that recognition.

Donald Trump's decision is an internationally significant signal to recognize Morocco's annexation and will undoubtedly reduce Western Sahara's chances of gaining independence.

In any case, the President of the United States has made very significant and for twenty-five years unprecedented progress in improving relations between Israel and the Arab world.