Israeli PM's spokesman praises normalisation of ties

Senior White House advisor Jared Kushner led a delegation from Israel to Morocco on Tuesday on the first known direct flight since the two countries agreed to establish full diplomatic ties earlier this month as part of a series of US-brokered normalisation accords with Arab countries.

After their arrival in Rabat, Kushner together with Israel's National Security Advisor Meir Ben-Shabbat and members of the US-Israeli delegation visited the Mohammed V Mausoleum and later were expected to meet with the Moroccan delegation.

Kushner, President Donald Trump's son-in-law, has overseen the diplomatic push that saw the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco normalise relations with Israel in historic agreements that also brought them major favours from Washington.

As part of the deal, Morocco, which is home to a small but centuries-old Jewish community and has long welcomed Israeli tourists, secured US recognition of its 1975 annexation of the disputed region of Western Sahara, which is not recognised by the United Nations.

The US decision to recognise Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara has drawn criticism from the UN as well as American allies in Africa and beyond.

African observers have said it could destabilise the broader region, already struggling against Islamist insurgencies and migrant trafficking.

Kushner and Meir Ben-Shabbat were expected to meet with Morocco's King Mohammed VI and other top officials.

Israelis of all backgrounds have celebrated the normalisation accords after decades in which their country was shunned by the Arab world over its still-unresolved conflict with the Palestinians.

Saudi Arabia, a regional power with close ties to Morocco, has given its tacit support for the normalisation accords and could be next.

The agreements, billed as the "Abraham Accords" after the biblical patriarch revered by Muslims and Jews, were a major foreign policy achievement by the Trump administration.

President-elect Joe Biden has welcomed the agreements even as he has vowed to pursue different policies in the region, including returning the US to Iran's nuclear deal with world powers.