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'Israel', Morocco and Western Sahara; it's deeper than we thought: MPN

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: MintPress News
30 Jun 2023 16:37

The Israeli occupation and Morocco join efforts to integrate Western Sahara with their markets and economies, despite the region's disputed status.

Morocco's Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita (R) shakes hands with the former Security Minister of the Israeli occupation entity Benny in the capital Rabat on 24 November 2021. (AFP)

The normalization agreement between the Israeli occupation entity and Morocco was signed in December 2020 under former US President Donald Trump’s administration. One of the key components of the agreement was that Washington declare the Western Sahara as part of Morocco, which was ratified by Trump.

Since then, Israeli companies and manufacturing facilities extended their business outreach across the Western Sahara, signaling a joint effort between "Tel Aviv" and Rabat to integrate the region's economic system and trade market with that of Morocco, and expand "Israel's" influence and industrial complex into Africa.

Western Sahara used to be a Spanish colony, rich in phosphate and enjoying access to Atlantic fishing waters. However, Morocco sees the region as part of its territory.

In 1975, Morocco annexed part of the region – a region indigenous to the Sahrawi people – and its entirety in 1979. Few have accepted these actions: today, 82 countries recognize Western Sahara’s independence, while only the United States recognizes Moroccan sovereignty over the land.

A MintPress News report explores the extent of the cooperation between the entity and Morocco to solidfy their presence in the region.

'Worst of the worst'

Despite not recognizing the Western Sahara as part of Morocco, Israeli companies are already operating in the region alongside their new ally. Firms include NewMed Energy, Ratio Petroleum, Selina Group, Halman-Aldubi Technologies, and one unnamed company building an aquaculture project, the report said.

Up until the date of the report, the only two companies working on energy exploration ventures are NewMed Energy and Ratio Petroleum, both of which are Israeli, Western Sahara Resource Watch (WSRW) revealed.

“Those are resources that will be depleted and disappear under occupation before the conflict has been resolved, and that is very worrisome for the Sahrawi people,” Erik Hagen, a WSRW board member, told MintPress News. “So the stuff the Israeli companies are doing now is kind of the worst of the worst.”

According to MPN, the Moroccan National Office of Hydrocarbons and Mines (ONHYM) inked in September 2021 a deal with Ratio Gibraltar, a Ratio Petroleum subsidiary, to explore oil and gas of the coast of Dakhla, a city in Western Sahara. The business has since been growing, the site added.

ONHYM also started working in December 2022 with NewMed Energy, a subsidiary of Israeli firm Delek Group

No response given

In December 2022, NewMed Energy, a subsidiary of Israeli firm Delek Group, started working on energy projects in Boujdour Atlantique block with ONHYM and Adarco Energy.

According to WSRW, a number of European and American investors are also part of Delek Group.

The owner of the firm, Yitzhak Tshuva, owns the most shares, second to him is the Norwegian Government Pension Fund, while German Deutsche Bank is the Delek Group's 10th biggest owner.

BlackRock and Vanguard Group, two of the largest investing funds in the world, also hold stake in the company alongside other financial firms.

Asked by WSRW last December regarding their offshore drilling license in Western Sahara, Vice President of Regulatory and Public Affairs at NewMed Energy Nadav Perry replied:

"I would like to clarify that all our actions in the past and in the present are done in accordance with and subject to international law and Israeli law and the laws in force. In addition, it should be noted in this context that we act in accordance with the stated policy of the Israeli government and we intend to continue doing so.”

But when asked by WSRW for clarifications on which country’s laws the company is following, no response was given.

Investments meant to create international recognition

The news site mentioned that as of the past few months, Israeli companies establishing presence in Western Sahara have begun growing.

In March, the Israeli Minister of Innovation, Science, and Technology, revealed that an Israeli company will launch an aquaculture in the African region.

“This, and other areas of cooperation have been made possible by the Abraham accords,” Ofir Akunis said at the 2023 UN Water Conference.

Selina Group, an Israeli tourism and hospitality firm, opened a new hotel Dakhla last April, MintPress News added. During the same month, a consortium of Israeli startups announced a a joint collaboration with Moroccan Mohammed VI Polytechnic University to develop sustainable food solutions in the Western Sahara region.

The startups, led by Halman-Aldubi Technologies, also include Seakura, Shachar Group, FreezeM, and Celitron Israeli firms.

Rabat aims, by luring foreign investments into Western Sahara, to establish a de facto status on its control over the region, said the director of International Crisis Group's North Africa office according to the report.

“By attracting foreign investments in Western Sahara, you are effectively creating international recognition and acceptance for Moroccan control of Western Sahara,” Riccardo Fabiani told the site.

With Israelis growing their investment operations in Western Sahara, “you’re signaling to other foreign companies that it’s fine to invest in Western Sahara. It’s business as usual."

Fabiani noted that before the normaliztion agreement, international firms avoided doing business in the African region over fears of possible repercussions. However, as foreign bussiness increase their presence there, the region's global recognition as being part of Morocco is being molded.

“The stances and positions that many Western countries and companies are taking increasingly toward Western Sahara is the idea that this is not really an occupied territory; it’s more like a disputed area under control by the Moroccans,” he told MintPress News.

Military ties

According to the report, relations between Morocco and the occupation entity predates by the normalization agreement signed three years ago by decades.

In 2014, Morocco signed a $50 million deal for three IAI Heron UAVs from the Israel Aerospace Industries. The drones entered service in the Moroccan army several years ago and were reportedly intended for use against the Polisario Front, a group fighting for Western Sahara’s referendum-based independence since the 1970s, the news site added.

“By doing this, the Israelis are effectively helping the Moroccans fight back the Polisario, and you could argue that it’s a way of repressing the pro-independence movement,” Fabiani said.

In 2018, MenaDefense.net revealed footage of Moroccan police officers yielding Tavor (X95) Israeli-made firearms during a public march. But Rabat denied it purchased them from the occupation entity, claiming they were acquired through a European company.

Rabat and "Tel Aviv" have also been found to be cooperating with the Israeli occupation in the field of espionage and cyberwarfare.

Amnesty International published a report earlier saying that Morocco's government used Israeli NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware to illegally monitor activists, journalists, and human rights advocates in Western Sahara between the years 2017 and 2020.

In November 2021, the Israeli occupation entity and Morocco signed a memorandum of understanding MoU on security cooperation between the two sides.

Also during the same month, the Israeli occupation sold an IAI Harop UAV to Morocco. Contrary to all the other unmanned aerial vehicles developed to return to base, the Harop self-destructs into its targets.

The Head of the Israeli Security Ministry’s Political-Military Bureau then said the agreement opens the door to "intel sharing and joint drills" and will create a "strategic alliance of knowledge."

IOF in Morocco

Earlier this month, Israeli occupation forces took part in an exercise in Morocco alongside the Moroccan armed forces, marking for a precedent, as the IOF have never trained in an Arab country.

One military source reported that the affair went down in light of a senior IOF delegation going to Morocco, saying: "We laid the foundations there for a close military relationship between our two armies," the Israeli i24News website reported then.

The source also claimed that the Moroccan soldiers would learn from the IOF and share experiences with them, highlighting that there were common challenges facing both the Israelis and the Moroccans, such as "the protection of borders, the fight against terrorism, and the involvement of Iran and its proxies to destabilize the region."