The Moroccan Justice and Development Party (opposition) refuses its country to host the Negev Summit 2, which includes Israel and 4 other Arab countries.
This came in a brief statement by the Party, commenting on the announcement by Israeli Foreign Minister, Eli Cohen, on 2 January, that Morocco will host, the Negev Summit 2 in March, a meeting between Israel, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt, in addition to the host country and the US.
The statement, issued on Monday evening, said, “The National Council for Justice and Development (the party’s Parliament) announced its total rejection of Morocco hosting any meeting attended by Israel.”
There was no official comment from the Moroccan authorities confirming or denying the Israeli announcement regarding the Negev Summit 2 as of 10:20 (GMT).
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The Times of Israel reported the US was planning the meeting between Israel and the Arab countries with whom it has diplomatic ties in early 2023 as the Americans push the incoming right-wing government of Benjamin Netanyahu to show restraint.
Israel and the US want other Arab countries to join the “Abraham accords,” especially Saudi Arabia with whom Israel share concerns about Iran’s security threats.
Earlier in December, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken hailed the Negev Summit, and added that “early next year, working groups will meet to expand collaboration on key issues in the areas that we’ve set out for cooperation under Negev, including health, food security, tourism, regional security.”
But for Israeli foreign minister “expanding the accords to other countries is not a matter of ‘if’ but of ‘when’.”
He added that Israel’s ties with current Arab partners had yielded $2.85 billion in 2022 trade and “a significant contribution to security (and) regional stability”.
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On 15 September, 2020, Israel, the UAE and Bahrain signed agreements to normalise relations, which the White House called the Abraham Accords. Morocco and Sudan later joined them.
Tel Aviv held the Negev Summit in March 2022 in the city of the Negev in southern Israel, and it included the foreign ministers of Egypt, Morocco, Bahrain, the UAE and the US. The six countries agreed to hold the summit annually.
According to the statement issued by the first summit, it will work on six areas: clean energy, education and peaceful co-existence, food and water security, health, regional security and tourism.
