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For the primary time, the Israel Protection Forces participated in a serious American-led navy drill held in Morocco and close by African nations, which wrapped up on Thursday, as observers.
The US Africa Command mentioned its joint annual drill with Morocco — dubbed “African Lion” — concerned some 7,500 servicemembers and ran between June 6 via 30 in Morocco, Ghana, Senegal, and Tunisia. (The latter of which doesn’t have any diplomatic ties with Israel.)
Becoming a member of the host international locations have been troops from Brazil, Chad, France, Italy, the Netherlands, and the UK, AFRICOM mentioned.
The drill featured a number of live-fire workouts, maritime and air drills, “a chemical, organic, radiological, nuclear response train,” and different “humanitarian civic help” workouts, in keeping with AFRICOM.
The Israeli navy despatched a minimum of two officers to watch the drills, in keeping with the Royal Moroccan Armed Forces. There was no rapid public touch upon Israel’s participation from the IDF.
Morocco normalized ties with the Jewish state in December 2020, shortly after comparable agreements with the UAE and Bahrain.
لأول مرة في تاريخ مناورات الأسد الإفريقي 2022 والقارة الافريقية شارك الجيش الإسرائيلي @IDF بوفد عسكري بصفة مراقب.#StrongerTogether ???????????????? pic.twitter.com/gM0Mv6Kp4F
— Royal Moroccan Armed Forces (@MoroccanArmed) July 1, 2022
In March, senior Israeli navy officers wrapped up a primary official journey to Morocco, the place the perimeters signed an accord that aimed to have the 2 militaries collaborate.
“Alternatives for navy collaborations have been mentioned, each coaching and within the operational and intelligence areas,” the IDF mentioned on the time.
A number of high-level Israeli officers, together with Protection Minister Benny Gantz have additionally visited Morocco and signed cooperation agreements. together with in know-how, safety, the navy and commerce. Final week, Inside Minister Ayelet Shaked visited the African nation.
Morocco had minimize relations with Israel in 2000, following the outbreak of the Second Intifada, however reestablished ties 20 years later in a deal that noticed Washington acknowledge Rabat’s sovereignty over the disputed Western Sahara.
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