分类： politics

On the sidelines of the annual United Nations General Assembly in New York on Tuesday, former and current U.S. President Donald Trump convened a high-profile gathering of top Arab and Muslim regional leaders, an event that drew widespread global attention amid escalating tensions across the Middle East. While Trump heaped extensive praise on his assembled guests and revealed that U.S. envoys had held a landmark three-hour negotiation session with Iranian officials aimed at de-escalating ongoing conflict, the closed-door meeting concluded without any major policy announcements or concrete agreements to address the region’s long-running turmoil.

Speaking to reporters shortly before entering the closed meeting, Trump confirmed the surprise diplomatic breakthrough, framing the discussion between U.S. and Iranian representatives as a constructive step toward finding a mutually acceptable exit to the open hostilities that have roiled the region since February. “They had a very good meeting, a very productive meeting,” Trump told the press pool, adding that a follow-up negotiation has already been scheduled for the near future to continue the dialogue.

During the meeting with regional leaders, Trump personally credited two of his closest associates for spearheading the indirect talks with Iran: special peace envoy Steve Witkoff, and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law who holds no formal official position in the 2025 administration. “We’ll see what happens with that… We’ve been mediating for a while, but I think there’s a lot of momentum for them to make a deal. That’s what we’re hearing from everybody,” Trump told attendees and the assembled press before reporters were escorted out of the room.

The gathering brought together a who’s who of top leadership from across the Middle East and Muslim-majority region, including Jordan’s King Abdullah II, Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi, Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly, Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, Kuwaiti Crown Prince Sabah Khaled Al Hamad Al Sabah, United Arab Emirates Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, and Saudi Arabia Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud.

Trump opened his opening remarks to the group with unusually glowing public praise, calling the gathering a milestone in U.S. engagement with its regional partners. “It’s an honour to be here with some of America’s greatest and closest friends, allies, and partners to continue our effort toward a safer and more prosperous Middle East,” the president said. “Special place, and it’s become more special over the last period of time since I’ve been in politics… I’ve got a lot of great friends sitting around this table. They’re amazing people, and we make sure their lives are good.”

He went on to note that every participating nation had been “outstanding” in its cooperation with the United States, and thanked leaders for the approximately $21 trillion in regional investment that has flowed into the U.S. economy since he took office in January 2025. Trump reserved particular warm praise for Erdogan, with whom he has cultivated a close personal relationship dating back to his first presidential term, calling the Turkish leader a “fantastic guy” and a “tough cookie.” He joked to the room, “Don’t mess around with him,” drawing laughter from the assembled leaders.

This marked the second consecutive year that Trump has held this type of dedicated regional meeting on the UNGA sidelines. Last year’s gathering included leaders from the world’s most populous Muslim nations, Pakistan and Indonesia, and centered heavily on brokering an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. That ceasefire ultimately took effect three weeks after the 2024 meeting, though Israeli forces have continued to conduct regular air strikes on the enclave on a weekly basis in the months since.

This year’s meeting comes as Iran dominates regional policy discussions, following Iranian retaliatory strikes against U.S. interests that triggered the current open U.S.-Israeli campaign against Iran that launched on February 28. In his remarks, Trump boasted of the damage the coalition campaign has inflicted on Iranian military capabilities, claiming: “Operation Epic Fury crippled Iran’s Navy… Eliminated its air force. They have no planes. Hit over 90 percent of its weapons factories and destroyed 450 ballistic missile storage facilities and 800 drone storage facilities.” He went on to issue a fresh warning, saying the U.S. is prepared to launch additional strikes on the key Iranian site Pickaxe Mountain if any military activity is detected there. “We’re not seeing a lot of activity there, but if we do, we’ll blow it up immediately,” he said.

Following Trump’s opening remarks to press, reporters were ushered out of the meeting room. The assembled regional leaders did not address media, and maintained stoic expressions during Trump’s public comments, with no pushback or public comment on his stark warnings against Iran.

This report was originally sourced from independent regional outlet Middle East Eye, which provides dedicated, unrivaled coverage of the Middle East, North Africa and surrounding regions.

A high-profile upcoming marriage between one of former President Donald Trump’s closest legal advisors and a reclusive Turkish business leader is drawing widespread attention to overlapping global political connections and controversial commercial ventures stretching from central Africa to South America.

Alina Habba, the 42-year-old attorney who represented Trump in multiple high-stakes legal cases between 2021 and 2024, is scheduled to marry Turhan Mildon, the 29-year-old chief executive of Turkey-based family enterprise Miller Holding, later this week. Habba, who has long been considered a core member of Trump’s inner circle, was appointed by Trump as acting U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey in 2023, but a federal court later ruled the appointment unconstitutional, forcing her to step down in December that year. She has recently signaled openness to returning to a senior White House role if Trump returns to office, telling reporters last month she would accept the position of White House press secretary if asked to fill an expected upcoming vacancy.

Unlike his high-profile fiancée, Mildon has deliberately kept a low public profile for most of his career, rarely granting media interviews or making public appearances in his home country of Turkey. In a rare interview with Middle East Eye, he explained his choice to stay out of the spotlight, noting that his businesses do not sell directly to end consumers, making a public brand profile unnecessary. He also firmly pushed back against growing speculation that the upcoming marriage carries any hidden political agenda, stating plainly, “This marriage has no political motivation.”

According to Mildon, the pair were introduced several years ago by a mutual friend who serves as an ambassador based in the U.S., and the connection gradually developed into a romantic relationship. This will be Mildon’s second marriage: he was previously wed to Betul Gursoy, daughter of the late owner of the Gursoy Group, the construction firm that built Istanbul’s iconic Camlica Mosque, a major infrastructure project personally commissioned by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The pair divorced in late 2024. After his split from Gursoy, Mildon dated the daughter of Remigio Ceballos, a prominent Venezuelan admiral and long-time ally of former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who currently serves as Venezuela’s ambassador to China. Ceballos has held a series of senior roles in Venezuela, including interior minister, top military commander, and aide-de-camp to Maduro.

Mildon’s business empire spans multiple industries and has expanded far beyond Turkey’s borders over the past four years, anchored by major infrastructure projects in the Democratic Republic of Congo that began after a high-level introduction from Erdogan himself. Mildon told MEE that during Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi’s official state visit to Turkey, Erdogan personally connected him to the African leader, who subsequently invited him to Kinshasa in 2021, at a time when widespread political and economic instability left most international investors hesitant to enter the country. “People didn’t dare to invest in Congo, so we have taken certain risks,” he said.

Since entering the Congolese market, his construction and investment firm Milvest has secured roughly $1 billion in public and private contracts, and has expanded into the mining sector, bringing hundreds of millions of dollars in direct foreign investment to the country, per Mildon’s own account. Earlier this year, the firm won a $67 million contract to build an aerial infrastructure base in Kisangani, a project Mildon clarifies is limited to civilian construction of a runway, control tower, and aircraft hangars, with no involvement in defense operations. The project was completed several months ago, he added.

Not all of Milvest’s Congolese projects have proceeded without controversy. Two major contracts — the $400 million Kinshasa Financial Center, billed as the largest financial hub on the African continent, and the Arena, a planned indoor sports complex that will be the largest of its kind in Africa when complete — sparked public scrutiny in 2023 after local media reports accused former Congolese Finance Minister Nicolas Kazadi of mismanaging public funds allocated for the projects. Mildon says that as of yet, neither he nor his company have received any formal investigation or inquiry from the Congolese government, and he confirmed the financial center was completed on schedule in December 2023 after 21 months of construction. Kazadi has also denied any wrongdoing, arguing the combined $400 million price tag for both projects came in under initial cost estimates.

The Arena project has faced additional hurdles, after Congolese officials accused Milvest of improperly securing tax and import exemptions for construction materials. Mildon denies any wrongdoing, but says the dispute delayed construction by eight months and cost his company millions of dollars in avoidable losses. MEE attempted to reach Kazadi for additional comment on the controversies but did not receive a response before publication.

More recently, Mildon has expanded his business operations into the high-risk Venezuelan market, where he has navigated complex U.S. sanctions and local political disputes to launch a cement revival project through his firm Vancement. After visiting the country and being impressed by its people and landscape, Mildon says he followed legal advice to avoid sanctioned sectors including oil, rare minerals, and chemicals, and instead focused on reviving Venezuela’s idle state-owned cement factories. In 2023, Vancement reached a profit-sharing agreement with the Venezuelan government to restart 10 cement plants that were nationalized in the early 2000s and had been operating well below production capacity. The agreement was reached after lengthy negotiations with the state-owned cement firm Corporacion Socialista del Cemento and then-Industry Minister Alex Saab, a close Maduro ally, and Mildon says the structure of the deal allows his company to operate in Venezuela without triggering U.S. sanctions penalties.

The Venezuelan venture has also faced public pushback: local contractors have alleged Vancement has failed to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in outstanding bills for work on the project, and Venezuelan legislative leaders have publicly criticized the company for sky-high retail cement prices that have strained working-class consumers. Mildon denies both sets of claims. He argues payment disputes stem from local business customs and misattribution of debt owed by third-party contractors, not any failure by Vancement to meet its financial obligations. On the topic of cement prices, he explains that Vancement sells each bag of cement to third-party resellers for just $3 to $5, but resellers mark up prices to between $20 and $37, for which his company bears no blame. He told MEE that Vancement has asked the Venezuelan government to create a regulatory task force to crack down on excessive resale markups, but no action has been taken to date.

As the couple prepares for their wedding this week, their union is expected to continue drawing scrutiny from political observers, who are watching for how the connection between a top Trump ally and a Turkish business leader with deep ties to Erdogan, Maduro, and Congolese government leaders could shape policy and commercial outcomes if Trump wins a second term in 2024.

The Spanish government has ignited widespread domestic and international criticism after opting not to block a U.S. extradition request for high-profile American pro-Palestine activist and humanitarian donor Fergie Chambers at the preliminary review stage, clearing the way for the case to advance to the Spanish national court system. Government spokesperson Elma Saiz framed the Tuesday ruling as a strictly procedural step, emphasizing that the executive branch only completed a formal review of the extradition filing rather than a substantive judgment on its merits. Now, Chambers’ legal team will mount a challenge to the extradition before Spain’s Audiencia Nacional, after which the Spanish government will issue a final binding decision on the case. Lead defense counsel Baltasar Garzón — the former Spanish judge renowned for pursuing former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet under the doctrine of universal jurisdiction — warned that the government’s decision establishes a dangerous precedent that undermines global advocacy for Palestinian rights. Garzón argued that Spain cannot credibly claim to uphold international law, defend Palestinian people’s rights, and protect humanitarian workers while advancing an extradition request that bears clear hallmarks of political persecution by the U.S. government. The ruling has also drawn sharp condemnation from across Spanish political circles. Ione Belarra, member of Spain’s Congress of Deputies and secretary-general of the left-wing party Podemos, called the outcome devastating for all those who support Palestinian statehood. “This decision is devastating not just for Fergie Chambers and his family, but for the pro-Palestine movement in Spain and across Europe,” Belarra stated. She went on to label Chambers as the first political prisoner in Spanish history held solely for his advocacy for Palestine, accusing Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s government of electing to keep him in detention to advance what she called the Trump administration’s politically motivated persecution. Chambers, an heir to the prominent Cox family fortune, was first arrested on the Spanish holiday island of Ibiza this past July in compliance with the U.S. extradition request. U.S. federal prosecutors have charged him with international money laundering, riot, and conspiracy to riot, alleging that after relocating from the U.S. in 2023, he moved roughly $7.5 million out of the country with the intention of providing material support to Hamas. As of press time, the U.S. Department of Justice has not issued any response to requests for comment on the case. Prior to Tuesday’s government ruling, Chambers’ legal team submitted a formal argument calling on the executive to block the extradition entirely, pointing to what they described as undeniable political motivations driving the U.S. request. The defense outlined three core legal objections: first, that allowing the case to proceed would enable the political persecution of Chambers; second, that U.S. prosecutors have failed to link Chambers personally to any specific acts of violence or property damage, and the charge of “conspiracy to riot” has no equivalent offense under Spanish criminal law; and third, that the money laundering allegation is baseless, as all of Chambers’ wealth was legally obtained through his family inheritance and fully documented. Stella Schnabel, Chambers’ partner, called the decision deeply alarming, arguing it sends a message that pro-Palestine solidarity can be criminalized even in Europe. “This sends a deeply disturbing message that even in Spain, solidarity with the Palestinian people could be treated as a crime, and risks extending the Trump administration’s repression of pro-Palestine and progressive movements into Europe, setting a dangerous precedent for others,” Schnabel said. She also shared the emotional toll of the ruling, saying she is heartbroken that Chambers will remain behind bars, where he can only meet his children through a glass partition and cannot hold his young son or their unborn child due in the near future. Beyond his political advocacy, Chambers has carried out extensive humanitarian work in Gaza. He provided a $100,000 grant to the Zaynab Project, which expands long-term mental health and psychosocial support for orphaned children in Gaza, connecting vulnerable youth to licensed therapists and ongoing counseling. He also donated $250,000 to the Sameer Project, a Gaza-based humanitarian organization that used the funding to build a bakery in northern Gaza, complete a desalination plant to provide clean drinking water, and operate a free medical clinic for local residents. After Chambers’ arrest in July, the charity paused all its operations, a move that has impacted tens of thousands of vulnerable Palestinians who rely on its services. Ahead of the government’s decision, 150 high-profile global public figures signed an open letter urging the Spanish government to reject the U.S. extradition request as an act of political persecution orchestrated by the Trump administration. Signatories included prominent Palestinian writer Mohammed el-Kurd, veteran civil rights campaigner Angela Davis, musicians Bob Vylan and Lowkey, and actors Riz Ahmed and Richard Gere. The letter condemned what it called the Trump administration’s unprecedented crackdown on individuals and organizations working to oppose what they described as genocide in Gaza and uphold international law, noting that Chambers has dedicated his life to supporting marginalized and vulnerable communities around the world. Last week, public protests in support of Chambers were held in six major Spanish cities, including Madrid, Barcelona, Murcia, Seville, and Galicia, drawing hundreds of pro-Palestine demonstrators who called for the Spanish government to reject the extradition request entirely. The controversial ruling comes at a moment of significant political upheaval for Spain, and amid already strained bilateral relations between Madrid and Washington. Spain is scheduled to hold a general election by 2027, and Sánchez’s minority coalition government faces pressure from multiple directions: left-wing parties have criticized the ruling as a betrayal of pro-Palestine values, while the conservative Popular Party and far-right Vox — both of which hold strongly pro-Israel positions — have pushed the government to comply with the U.S. request. Sánchez has already clashed repeatedly with U.S. President Donald Trump this year, most prominently over the ongoing war in Iran: his government refused to allow the U.S. to use Spanish military bases in Rota and Morón for operations linked to the conflict, and later barred U.S. military aircraft involved in the war from entering Spanish airspace.

In a 38-minute address to the United Nations General Assembly Tuesday, former U.S. President Donald Trump (in his second term) laid out his 20-month foreign policy legacy through sweeping, unsubstantiated claims, while issuing a stark demand that all UN member states withdraw from the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Compared to his fiery 2024 UNGA speech packed with direct personal attacks, this year’s address carried a calmer tone on the surface, but retained multiple debunked, unproven allegations against regional adversaries. Most notably, Trump claimed without evidence that 72,000 Iranians were killed by their own government during late 2024 and early 2025 anti-government protests. This figure stands in stark contradiction to all available public data: Iranian authorities put the death toll at approximately 3,500, while independent international human rights monitors estimate the count at roughly 5,000 or higher. Throughout 2025, Trump has cited inconsistent figures ranging from 40,000 to 82,000 for these deaths, with no verifiable source for the inflated numbers; even satellite imagery, which has been used to confirm mass casualty events in other global conflicts, has shown no evidence to support his claims.

The president also repeated a false allegation that Hamas and other Palestinian groups tortured, mutilated, and killed numerous infants during the October 7, 2023 attacks in southern Israel. Israeli independent media investigations have already debunked these specific claims, and the Israel Defense Forces acknowledged that at least one soldier provided incorrect information to Israeli rescue organization Zaka that fueled the false reports. While five young children (including one four-year-old, two five-year-olds, and two six-year-olds) were among those killed on October 7, the majority of child fatalities that day were between 12 and 17 years old, with some killed by errant rocket fire.

The ICC’s recent issuance of arrest warrants for three Hamas leaders (all subsequently killed by Israeli forces) as well as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant drew fierce condemnation from Trump, who labeled the court “out of control” and “a rogue institution” run by “an evil group of people.” “I call on all nations that are members of the ICC to officially resign from this rogue institution immediately,” he told the assembled delegates.

Turning to the ongoing U.S.-Israeli military campaign against Iran, now in its seventh month, Trump doubled down on his longstanding pledge to block Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. He claimed that shortly after taking office for his second term in 2025, he opened direct negotiations with Tehran, offering full economic cooperation in exchange for ending Iran’s nuclear program and what he calls support for terrorist groups—an offer he said Iran “absolutely refused.” While the decision to pursue direct talks drew some early praise, the diplomatic effort, led by special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, has faced widespread criticism for mismanagement and incompetence.

Since March 2025, Iranian retaliatory strikes against U.S. allies in the Gulf have disrupted global shipping, closing key chokepoints including the Strait of Hormuz and the Bab el-Mandeb (blocked by Iran-aligned Houthi forces in Yemen). The disruption has sent U.S. gasoline prices soaring, worsening a persistent affordability crisis that has not eased significantly since the COVID-19 pandemic. At least 14 U.S. military personnel have been killed in regional attacks, with nearly 600 more wounded. Echoing the blunt framing of his old reality television show *The Apprentice*, Trump teased a potential post-election deal to end the conflict: “Will a deal be made with Iran that lets them rebuild and create a far greater country than it ever was before, maybe one of the greatest in the Middle East or even the world, or do I annihilate the Islamic Republic and do it quickly, never giving them a chance to kill and destroy people and countries again?” He added that he expects a deal to be reached shortly after the upcoming November 3 midterm elections, claiming Iranian leaders are waiting to see the election’s outcome—though he noted he is not on the ballot this cycle. Forecasters widely expect the midterms to flip the U.S. House of Representatives from Republican to Democratic control, with the Senate also likely to flip or end in an even split; the results are widely viewed as a public referendum on Trump’s first 20 months of his second term.

Trump also forcefully pushed back against a recent report from his own Department of Defense inspector general that warned the U.S. is depleting its weapons stockpiles due to sustained military support for allies in the Iran campaign. “The cowards and traitors would love to say the United States is low on munitions, but that’s not true,” he said. “We have more munitions than we could ever possibly even think of using, and we’re building them at levels that we have never done before… There are 18 new massive munition plants being built by the world’s largest defense contractors right now.” He closed his remarks on Iran by calling for global collective action to enforce full economic isolation of Tehran until it halts attacks on commercial shipping, abandons its nuclear program, and ends support for armed groups he labels terrorist.

Trump’s address came just two weeks ahead of the third anniversary of the October 7, 2023 attacks, and three weeks after a Trump-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas went into effect on October 10, 2025. UN Secretary-General has criticized the ceasefire as a “lesser fire,” noting that Israel has continued carrying out air strikes that killed more than a dozen children in Gaza just this month, with few of the ceasefire’s obligations met by Israeli authorities. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, the confirmed death toll in Gaza has now reached nearly 74,000, with the final count expected to surpass 100,000 once rubble clearing operations recover the remains of missing people.

Despite little tangible progress on the Trump-created “Board of Peace” for Gaza, a body of which Trump named himself chairman for life, the president used his UNGA platform to highlight supposed international praise for the initiative, citing endorsements from the leaders of Pakistan, Azerbaijan, and Armenia. He also thanked donor nations that have contributed $1 billion to the initiative, despite multiple unconfirmed reports that the dedicated World Bank account for Gaza relief remains empty. Trump thanked the UN Security Council for unanimously approving his 20-point Gaza peace plan and formalizing the Board of Peace, noting that his administration added a last-minute reference to Palestinian self-determination to the draft resolution to win support from Arab and Muslim nations, which the administration hopes will contribute troops to a proposed international stabilization force for Gaza. Regional diplomats are scheduled to hold follow-up talks with Trump on the sidelines of this year’s General Assembly, focused largely on Iran.

Trump linked his decision to launch the February 28, 2025 military campaign against Iran to the successful U.S. abduction of former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in early January 2025, framing the operation as proof of U.S. willingness to use military force to advance its interests in the Western Hemisphere—a core priority driven by hawkish Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has long pushed aggressive policy toward Latin American adversaries. The New York Times reported earlier this year that Venezuela’s new government, led by Maduro’s former deputy Delcy Rodriguez, is effectively controlled from Washington. Trump also announced a historic $65 billion oil concession deal with Venezuela, covering 65 billion barrels of crude that he claimed would lower global energy prices, though analysts note benefits to U.S. consumers will not materialize for at least a decade, and critics question whether the deal will improve quality of life for ordinary Venezuelans.

Cuba, another longstanding U.S. adversary facing a crippling Trump administration embargo that has worsened the island’s ongoing energy crisis and collapsed its national electrical grid, was also a target of Trump’s remarks. The Cuban UN delegation walked out of the General Assembly hall mid-speech in protest as Trump called for fundamental regime change in Havana, claiming the communist government is “an absolutely failed state” facing greater pressure than ever before. He noted that Marco Rubio is leading ongoing negotiations with Cuban officials, adding “let’s see what happens.”

In a sweeping generalization on global religious freedom, Trump claimed that “Christians are being persecuted all over the world,” criticizing the UN Human Rights Council for failing to address the issue. His remarks align with repeated statements from senior administration officials, including Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, who have argued the U.S. should identify as a Christian nation in spite of the constitutional separation of church and state. Trump also used the moment to defend his administration’s hardline immigration policies, including the closure of the U.S. southern border and the rollback of multiple legal immigration pathways, claiming the UN pushes for open U.S. borders to admit criminal gangs from unstable regions.

In the only concrete policy announcement of his speech, Trump revealed that for all official U.S. government documents and communications, the term “Artificial Intelligence” will be replaced with the new name “Super Intelligence.”

This report was sourced from independent open-source reporting by Middle East Eye.

On September 16, a high-profile meeting between Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar and Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita in New York yielded a landmark agreement to deepen bilateral relations between the two North African and Middle Eastern nations. The core of the new deal elevates both countries’ existing diplomatic missions to full embassy status and paves the way for the appointment of resident ambassadors, marking a major step forward in the normalization process that began with the 2020 Abraham Accords brokered during former U.S. President Donald Trump’s first term. Two supplementary pacts — one focused on investment protection and another addressing double taxation — are also scheduled to be finalized before the end of 2024.

In a joint statement released after the announcement, the United States, Israel, and Morocco reaffirmed their commitment to the principles of the Abraham Accords, arguing that full, peaceful diplomatic and friendly ties between Rabat and Tel Aviv serve the shared interests of all parties, with the potential to drive regional stability and unlock new economic and social opportunities across the Middle East and North Africa.

But this latest advancement in normalization has unfolded against widespread public opposition in Morocco, where broad popular support for the Palestinian cause and consistent condemnation of formal ties with Israel have remained deeply entrenched since the original accords were signed four years ago. The announcement also comes just one week ahead of Morocco’s September 23 general elections, leaving the sitting government in a caretaker role with limited authority to act on major policy changes — a detail that has sparked internal political discussion over who holds ultimate decision-making power over foreign affairs in the kingdom.

When the Abraham Accords were first signed in 2020, the Islamist-leaning Justice and Development Party (PJD) held the premiership under Saadeddine El-Othmani. PJD officials have long clarified that the 2020 accords did not contradict the party’s official pro-Palestine stance, pointing to Morocco’s unique political structure, where ultimate authority over international relations rests with the monarchy, not the sitting head of government. “Yes, PJD was in power when the Abraham Accords were signed, but the decision was made by the king; the head of government in Morocco does not have the power over international affairs,” a senior active PJD member, speaking on condition of anonymity to Middle East Eye, explained. The caretaker status of the current government during the recent announcement, he added, only reinforces that the monarchy retains full control over this major foreign policy shift.

To date, PJD remains the only officially registered political party in Morocco that has openly condemned the latest agreement to deepen ties with Israel. Following an urgent virtual meeting held the same day as the New York announcement, the party released an official statement reaffirming its “firm and unwavering stance against any form of normalisation or agreements with Israel.” The banned Islamist movement Al Adl Wal Ihsane has also publicly denounced the diplomatic upgrade, with Dr. Boubker El Ounkhari, a senior member of the movement’s political circle, calling the move “a blatant affront to Moroccans’ sentiments and a provocation against the popular will.”

El Ounkhari emphasized that at a moment when international pressure should be mounting on Israel to hold it accountable for its ongoing occupation and military campaign in Gaza, Rabat has instead chosen to formalize and deepen its bilateral relationship with Tel Aviv. Morocco’s current governing coalition, made up of the leading National Rally of Independents (RNI), the Authenticity and Modernity Party (PAM), and the Istiqlal Party, has remained largely silent on the agreement, with senior party members citing the sensitive pre-election context as a reason to avoid public comment.

A senior RNI member, also speaking anonymously, told Middle East Eye that internal party reaction to the deal was marked by “a kind of rationality and calmness.” He framed this muted response as predictable, noting that Moroccan-Israeli relations have been an established, non-negotiable part of the kingdom’s foreign policy since the 2020 accords were signed. A senior PAM member echoed the sentiment of caution, explaining that no party figure would risk commenting on a divisive issue that could be weaponized by political opponents in the final days of campaigning.

Moroccan officials have sought to justify the diplomatic upgrade by framing closer ties as a tool to advance humanitarian and diplomatic support for Palestinians. Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita told reporters that despite deeper cooperation, “Rabat does not agree with Israel 100 percent” — a narrative that mirrors the justification Rabat used when it deployed military personnel to the U.S.-backed International Stabilisation Force in Gaza as part of the 2020 Trump peace plan. The RNI member echoed this government framing, arguing that “Morocco can use its relations with Israel as a channel of diplomatic dialogue and pressure for stopping escalation and advancing a two-state solution,” though he acknowledged that “Moroccan-Israeli cooperation does not automatically translate into benefits for the Palestinians.”

Critics of normalization have rejected this justification outright. Ahmed Ouihmane, president of the Moroccan Observatory Against Normalisation and a member of the national secretariat of the Moroccan Working Group for Palestine, dismissed the claim that normalization serves Palestinian interests as “nothing but nonsense and an insult to the intelligence of the Moroccan people.” He challenged the government’s narrative, asking: “If normalisation is a means to serve the Palestinian cause, what results have actually been achieved for the Palestinians through it?”

Ouihmane pointed to the staggering human cost of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, where the United Nations has recorded that at least 21,000 Palestinian children have been killed in Israeli attacks since October 2023. He argued that tangible support for Palestinians would require cutting all cooperation that enables Israel’s military operation, including ending Morocco’s role as a key transit hub for arms shipments bound for Israel — a role that has included facilitating transport of components for F-35 fighter jets used in attacks across Gaza. “Real aid for Palestinians would begin by denying the Israeli war machine any form of cooperation, support or facilitation – such as allowing Moroccan ports to receive ships laden with lethal weaponry destined for the Zionist killing machine,” he said.

The announcement of the diplomatic upgrade comes at a particularly fraught time for the Moroccan government, which is already navigating multiple concurrent crises ahead of the general election. These include ongoing fallout from the Ceuta migrant crisis, allegations of Moroccan involvement that the kingdom has denied, a major high-profile leak that exposed the personal data of more than 70,000 Moroccan intelligence personnel, and a controversial Spanish bill that would grant citizenship to Sahrawis born in Western Sahara during the Spanish colonial era — a move that Rabat strongly opposes.

Many political observers and insiders frame the ongoing advancement of normalization as rooted in long-standing geopolitical and strategic priorities, most notably Morocco’s claim to sovereignty over Western Sahara. In December 2020, the United States formally recognized Morocco’s sovereignty over the disputed territory in a side agreement that was tied directly to Rabat’s signing of the Abraham Accords. The Western Sahara dispute has dominated Morocco’s foreign policy for decades, with the kingdom locked in a long-running regional rivalry with Algeria, which supports the pro-independence Polisario Front’s claims to the territory.

The PJD member acknowledged that Western Sahara is a core driving force behind the kingdom’s policy, explaining: “The state has its own geopolitical calculations that drive it to make such difficult decisions, that sometimes run counter to the will of the people.” Even so, he added, the rights of Palestinians remain a core principle for pro-Palestinian activists across the kingdom, and no strategic calculation can justify formal ties with Israel.

El Ounkhari echoed widespread public frustration, noting that Moroccans have consistently rejected normalization across every recent poll and public protest, yet official policy continues to move steadily toward deeper ties with Israel. “The official process continues in the opposite direction, moving from one stage to another in deepening relations with the Zionist entity,” he said.

Since the start of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza in October 2023, peaceful pro-Palestinian protests have been held every week outside Morocco’s parliament in Rabat, drawing thousands of participants from a broad coalition of trade unions, political groups, and civil society organizations. The Moroccan Working Group for Palestine, which Ouihmane serves on, is one of the leading umbrella organizations coordinating this grassroots movement.

Just four days after the diplomatic deal was announced, Ouihmane was physically assaulted by alleged members of a pro-normalization group called “We Are All Israelis” on a major street in central Rabat, requiring hospitalization. Local activists note that the attack marks an escalation of tensions: prior to the assault, the loose network of pro-Israel Moroccans, which formed after October 2023, had limited its activities to online harassment of anti-normalization activists.

Despite the attack, Ouihmane told Middle East Eye that the grassroots movement would continue its fight across all levels to reverse the normalization process. “We will continue our struggle at all levels […] our goal is to overturn the normalisation process,” he said. The movement’s demands are clear: end all normalization efforts, close the Israeli liaison office in Rabat, and cut all forms of cooperation with what Ouihmane calls a “rogue entity.”

Protesters have repeatedly made their position clear in mass rallies across every region of Morocco, Ouihmane added, and the message remains unchanged: “Palestine is a Moroccan national cause, […] while normalisation is a betrayal.”

El Ounkhari emphasized that official state policy does not make normalization inevitable or acceptable to the Moroccan public. “Embassies may be opened, and ambassadors exchanged, but that does not mean normalisation has become acceptable to the Moroccan people. Palestine will remain present in the conscience of Moroccans,” he said.