Yesterday, Friday, the Moroccan Ministry of Equipment called for proposals to build a port in Dakhla, a city in Western Sahara.
The announcement of the tender came a day after the United States announced its intention to open a consulate in the city on the Atlantic coast, joining about 17 Arab and African countries that already have diplomatic missions in Western Sahara.
On Thursday, US President Donald Trump announced Morocco and Israel agreeing to establish full diplomatic relations between them, while Washington announced its recognition of Morocco's sovereignty over the Sahara region.
The ministry said in a statement that the tender is scheduled to close on January 28, 2021, stressing that the port will cost up to one billion dollars, and will help boost maritime links and trade between Morocco and the rest of Africa.
Morocco considers Western Sahara to be an integral part of its territory, while the Polisario Front backed by Algeria seeks to establish an independent state there.
In the same context, an official in the US President’s administration revealed Washington’s pledge to implement investments in Morocco of about $ 3 billion over 3 years.
The American New York Times quoted a senior Trump administration official (unnamed) as saying that "the anticipated American investments in Morocco are not linked to the normalization agreement between Israel and Morocco."
With this announcement, Morocco will be the only Maghreb country that maintains relations with Israel, after Mauritania cut its relations with Tel Aviv in 2010, which is considered an Israeli breakthrough for the Maghreb region.
Morocco will also become the fourth Arab country to sign a normalization agreement or agree to normalization with Israel during the year 2020, after the UAE and Bahrain signed on September 15, and Sudan announced - on October 23 last - approval of normalization.
By doing so, these four countries will join two Arab countries that previously signed a peace agreement with Israel, namely Egypt and Jordan.