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The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expects to strengthen the diplomatic ties between Africa and Israel. According to an article published in the Jerusalem Post, an Israeli online newspaper, Netanyahu hopes to meet during the Economic Community of West African States' 51st summit three of the countries with which Israel has no diplomatic ties which are namely Morocco, Niger and Mali. The same source points out, that the Israeli leader is keen to meet and hold talks with the Moroccan delegation that could be presided by King Mohammed VI.
Moroco is expected to attend the summit set for the 4th of June in the Liberian capital, Monrovia, where the 15-member organization will decide on the Kingdom’s request to join the ECOWAS. It has not been confirmed yet whether, the King will be present at the event. Though the Israeli media platform, states that a Moroccan delegation is invited to the summit and it will include Morocco’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and other senior officials.
The Israeli-African deplomatic ties
Unlike international meetings, the African summit will take place in a hotel which makes of it an opportunity for Netanyahu to hold informal talks with African leaders. The Jerusalem Post states that the Israeli Prime Minister was invited last December to the latest ECOWAS summit in Nigeria. During that meeting, he discussed the successes of the Israeli agricultural sector.
Morocco and Israel have not had any formal relations since the outset of the second Intifada in 2000, when Morocco suspended diplomatic ties with the country. As indicated by the same source, diplomatic officials said that the expected meeting is a great opportunity for reinforcing the Israeli-African ties.
Netanyahu is expected to be one of the five speakers at the summit who are namely the «Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, currently the president of ECOWAS; ECOWAS Commission head Marcel Alain de Souza, who visited Israel and met with Netanyahu last summer; the new head of the African Union, Moussa Faki, from Chad; and – if he attends the meeting as expected – UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres».
Israel is invited as observer country in ECOWAS, a title that it lost in 2002 when it comes to the African Union. Since then, Israel is battling to regain its status.
