OCCUPIED JERUSALEM: Israel on Tuesday announced the re-opening of its diplomatic mission in Morocco, two decades after the office closed, following an agreement between the two countries to restore diplomatic ties.

Head of Mission David Govrin, who was Israel’s ambassador to Egypt from 2016 to 2020, has arrived in Rabat and “will work towards the continued advancement of bilateral relations,” a foreign ministry statement said.

Morocco and Israel in December signed a US-brokered normalisation agreement in Rabat, with bilateral deals centring on direct air links, water management, connecting financial systems and a visa waiver arrangement for diplomats. Morocco closed its liaison office in Tel Aviv in 2000, at the start of the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising.

The kingdom has North Africa’s largest Jewish community of about 3,000 people, and Israel is home to 700,000 Jews of Moroccan origin.