By Steve Holland
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Israel and Morocco agreed on Thursday to normalize relations in a deal brokered with U.S. help, making Morocco the fourth Arab country to set aside hostilities with Israel in the past four months.
It joins the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Sudan in beginning to forge deals with Israel, driven in part by U.S.-led efforts to present a united front against Iran and roll back Tehran's regional influence.
In a departure from longstanding U.S. policy, President Donald Trump agreed as part of the deal to recognize Morocco's sovereignty over the Western Sahara, a desert region where a decades-old territorial dispute has pitted Morocco against the Algeria-backed Polisario Front, a breakaway movement that seeks to establish an independent state in the territory.
President-elect Joe Biden, due to succeed Trump on Jan. 20, will face a decision whether to accept the U.S. deal on the Western Sahara, which no other Western nation has done. A Biden spokesman declined to comment on the move.
While Biden is expected to move U.S. foreign policy away from Trump's "America First" posture, the Democrat has indicated he will continue the pursuit of what Trump calls "the Abraham Accords" between Israel and Arab and Muslim nations.
Trump sealed the Israel-Morocco accord in a phone call with Morocco's King Mohammed VI on Thursday, the White House said.
"Another HISTORIC breakthrough today! Our two GREAT friends Israel and the Kingdom of Morocco have agreed to full diplomatic relations – a massive breakthrough for peace in the Middle East!" Trump tweeted.
Mohammed told Trump that Morocco intends to facilitate direct flights for Israeli tourists to and from Morocco, according to a statement from Morocco's royal court.
"This will be a very warm peace. Peace has never - the light of peace on this Hanukkah day has never - shone brighter than today in the Middle East," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement, referring to a Jewish eight-day holiday starting on Thursday night.
Palestinians have been critical of the normalization deals, saying Arab countries have set back the cause of peace by abandoning a longstanding demand that Israel give up land for a Palestinian state before it can receive recognition.
Egypt and UAE issued statements welcoming Morocco's decision to normalize ties with Israel. Egypt and Israel signed a peace treaty in 1979.
"This step, a sovereign move, contributes to strengthening our common quest for stability, prosperity, and just and lasting peace in the region," the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, wrote on Twitter.
The Morocco deal could be among the last that Trump's team, led by White House senior adviser Jared Kushner and U.S. envoy Avi Berkowitz, will negotiate before giving way to Biden's incoming administration.
Kushner told reporters on a conference call it was inevitable that Saudi Arabia would eventually strike a similar deal with Israel. A U.S. official said the Saudis were not likely to act until after Biden takes over, and even then there would be strong internal opposition that could block such a move in the near term.
FULL DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS
Under the agreement, Morocco will establish full diplomatic relations and resume official contacts with Israel.
"They are going to reopen their liaison offices in Rabat and Tel Aviv immediately with the intention to open embassies. And they are going to promote economic cooperation between Israeli and Moroccan companies," Kushner told Reuters.
Trump's agreement to change U.S. policy toward the Western Sahara was the linchpin for getting Morocco's agreement and a major shift away from a mostly neutral stance.
In Rabat, Morocco's royal court said Washington will open a consulate in Western Sahara as part of Morocco's deal with Israel.
A White House proclamation said the United States believes that an independent Sahrawi state is "not a realistic option for resolving the conflict and that genuine autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty is the only feasible solution."
"We urge the parties to engage in discussions without delay, using Morocco's autonomy plan as the only framework to negotiate a mutually acceptable solution," it said.
Washington had supported a 1991 ceasefire between Morocco and the Western Sahara's Polisario Front independence movement that called for a referendum to resolve the issue. Last month, after a border incident, the Polisario pulled out of that deal and announced a return to armed struggle.
A representative of the Polisario Front independence movement for Western Sahara said it "regrets highly" the U.S. change in policy, which it called "strange but not surprising."
"This will not change an inch of the reality of the conflict and the right of the people of Western Sahara to self determination," the Polisario's Europe representative Oubi Bchraya said.
One more Middle East breakthrough is possible. Kushner and his team last week traveled to Saudi Arabia and Qatar seeking an end to a three-year rift between Doha and the Gulf Cooperation Council countries.