[Asia Economy Reporter Onyu Lim] The first direct passenger flight between Israel and Morocco has taken off.
On the 22nd (local time), according to Israeli media Times of Israel and AFP news agency, an El Al Airlines passenger plane took off from Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv, Israel, heading to Rabat, the capital of the North African Arab country Morocco.
This is the first time a regular Israeli passenger plane has flown directly to Morocco.
Onboard the flight were representatives from the U.S. and Israeli governments, including Jared Kushner, senior White House advisor and son-in-law of U.S. President Donald Trump, and Meir Ben-Shabbat, Israel's National Security Advisor.
The Israeli delegation is scheduled to sign bilateral agreements in Morocco covering various fields such as aviation, tourism, health, water resources, and agriculture.
On the 21st, a day before the flight, Kushner met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem and said that the improvement of relations between Israel and Morocco would create new opportunities in the Middle East.
Kushner's visit to Israel and Morocco is interpreted as a demonstration of the U.S. government's Middle East diplomacy. Earlier, Israel and Morocco agreed to normalize relations on the 10th of this month through mediation by President Trump.
Since August this year, Morocco became the fourth Arab country to agree to normalize relations with Israel through U.S. mediation, following the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, and Sudan.
Israel and Morocco maintained low-level diplomatic relations after Israel reached a provisional peace agreement with Palestine in the 1990s.
However, relations were suspended after the second Palestinian uprising (Intifada) against Israel erupted in 2000, and the two countries have unofficially maintained a special relationship in trade and other areas.
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