Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrived in Morocco today for a one-day trip aimed boosting ties with a country that the State Department deemed a “critical partner” across a range of issues ahead of the visit.

Pompeo is expected to discuss a broad array of topics with King Mohammed VI and top government officials including energy cooperation, Iran's influence in the region and Rabat's disputed control over the Western Sahara. Looming over the visit, however, is what embattled Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu perceives as a historic opportunity to normalize relations between Morocco and Israel.

“Morocco plays a great role across the region as an important partner in promoting tolerance [and] has these quiet ties and relationship with Israel as well,” a senior department official told reporters last week. The kingdom also houses the largest Jewish community in the Arab world, with some 3,000 members.

Why it matters:  Pompeo is the highest-ranking US administration official to visit Morocco. This visit comes after President Donald Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner made his second trip to the country this summer as part of his sales pitch for his long-delayed Israeli-Palestinian peace plan. First daughter Ivanka Trump also visited the kingdom last month to promote the Trump administration's new Women's Global Development and Prosperity Initiative targeting women in developing countries. The United States has been without an ambassador to the country since 2017 (the nomination of David Fischer, a Michigan car dealer and Trump donor, has been in limbo in the Senate for months).