A senior US administration official said that White House adviser Jared Kushner will lead an American delegation next week to Israel and Morocco to hold talks on the agreement to normalize relations between Rabat and Tel Aviv that was reached last week.
The same official added that the American delegation will join an Israeli delegation and take the first direct commercial flight from Tel Aviv to Rabat, as a sign of progress after the agreement between Israel and Morocco, which Kushner helped broker.
Kushner, Middle East envoy Avi Berkowitz, and USAID chief Adam Buehler will arrive in Israel on Monday.
The official said that while in Jerusalem, Kushner, the son-in-law of US President Donald Trump, will hold talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
He added that El Al is expected to be the company that will operate the first direct flight from Tel Aviv to Rabat next Tuesday, and which will carry the Kushner team and a delegation headed by Israeli National Security Adviser Meir Ben Shabat.
In an interview with Israel Army Radio, Transport Minister Miri Regev, a descendant of Moroccan Jewish immigrants, said, "I am very proud that our grandparents and grandmothers can visit Morocco alive. This is peace."
Morocco is the Islamic country from which the largest number of Jewish immigrants came to Israel, reaching about 250,000.
Moroccan flag with the Israeli flag (Shutterstock)
Agreements and talks
The agreement between Israel and Morocco is the fourth that the United States brokered to reach after similar agreements between Israel and the UAE, Bahrain and Sudan.
As part of this agreement, US President Donald Trump agreed to recognize Morocco's sovereignty over Western Sahara, over which the decades-old dispute between the kingdom and the Polisario Front spans.
It is noteworthy that Kushner and his team are in talks with other Arab and Muslim countries, and hope to conclude at least another agreement before Trump leaves office on January 20, when President-elect Joe Biden takes his place.