Israeli army chief in Morocco for first visit
The Rabat visit of IDF chief Aviv Kochavi reflects rapprochement between the countries on regional security cooperation.
Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi is on a visit to Morocco this week, marking the first ever public visit by Israel’s top soldier in uniform to the Arab state. Kochavi’s three-day visit is being hosted by Moroccan Defense Minister Abdellatif Loudiyi and army commander Lt. Gen. Belkbhir El-Farouk. Kochavi is accompanied by the head of the military’s Intelligence Research Division Brig. Gen. Amit Saar, perhaps indicating the more clandestine nature of his talks and their true goal: deepening military and intelligence cooperation between the two countries.
Morocco has little if anything to contribute to Israel’s national security, but Israel, and especially its vaunted signals intelligence and cyber unit 8200, could prove helpful in Morocco’s ongoing conflict with Algeria and the Polisario rebels over the Western Sahara, according to Western assessments.
Morocco’s 2020 decision to normalize relations with Israel and bring them out into the open owes much to President Donald Trump’s promise to recognize Rabat’s control over the disputed Sahara area in return. Kochavi’s visit could also suggest that the Biden administration does not intend to reverse Trump’s controversial decision on the matter, a move that could have undermined and even torpedoed the Israel-Morocco rapprochement. The sides are growing closer.
Two days before leaving for Morocco on July 18, Kochavi hosted a visit by Gen. Michael Kurilla, head of the United States Central Command (CENTCOM), his second to the country since Trump moved Israel in 2021 from the purview of EUROCOM to that of the central command that includes the Persian Gulf and parts of Asia.
