Israel-Morocco agree to normalise relations

Israel and Morocco agreed to normalize relations in a deal brokered with U.S. help, making Morocco the fourth Arab country to set aside hostilities with Israel in the past four months.

Daily Current Affairs Quiz 2020

Key-Points

A former Spanish colony, Western Sahara is a vast, arid region in northwest Africa.

It is mineral rich: home to abundant reserves of phosphate, a key ingredient in the manufacturing of synthetic fertilisers. It has also lucrative fish resources and is believed to have off-shore oil.

The region first came under Spanish control in 1884, and was made a province called ‘Spanish Sahara’ by the European country in 1934. Then in 1957, its northern neighbour Morocco, which had become independent from French rule just a year before, staked its claim over the entire territory, reasserting a centuries-old position.

Then in 1975, ten years after the UN called for its decolonisation, Spain withdrew from Western Sahara, partitioning the region between Morocco, which received the region’s northern two-thirds, and Mauritania the remaining third in the south.

Since then, Morocco has controlled around 80 per cent of Western Sahara, including its phosphate reserves.

Combined with its own deposits of the mineral, Morocco currently holds over 72 per cent of the world’s phosphate reserves. China, which has the second-most reserves, has less than 6 per cent.