El jefe del Estado Mayor del Ejército de Israel visita Marruecos

Aviv Kochavi will become the first chief of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) to visit Morocco. The Israeli army chief of staff is travelling to the Kingdom with the aim of "further" boosting military and security cooperation between the two nations, according to the IDF.

Kochavi is scheduled to land in Rabat on Monday along with an IDF delegation that will meet with senior members of the Moroccan Royal Moroccan Armed Forces over the next three days.

Since Morocco and Israel re-established diplomatic relations, Rabat and Jerusalem have increased their partnership in several areas, such as technology, tourism, security and defence. Kochavi's visit comes months after Israel's Defence Minister Benny Gantz visited the Kingdom to sign a memorandum of understanding for bilateral security cooperation.

Following this agreement, and with the aim of further increasing the partnership between the two countries, Morocco received in March an IDF delegation led by Effe Defrin, head of the IDF's International Cooperation Division; Tal Kelman, a senior military official in charge of Iranian affairs; and the commander of the Intelligence Directorate's Operations Division, known as Brigadier General G. Recently, in the latest 'African Lion' military exercises - held in Morocco - Israel participated as an observer. Moreover, as Morocco World News reports, Israel and Morocco are also interested in intensifying the partnership in military intelligence matters. 

Since the beginning of the year, Kochavi has met with senior military officials from several Arab countries. At the beginning of 2022, the IDF chief visited Bahrain on his first official trip. During his stay in the Gulf country, Kochavi had met with his Qatari counterpart, despite the limited relations between Doha and Jerusalem, reports The Times of Israel. Subsequently, in March, Kochavi participated in a meeting in Egypt with several Arab military officials, including the Saudi military chief, as The Wall Street Journal reported.

Israel, together with the US, is trying to establish a common front against Iranian threats. During US President Joe Biden's recent visit to the Middle East, this challenge played an important role during meetings, especially in relation to Tehran's nuclear programme.

Following Biden's regional trip, an advisor to Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei stressed to Al Jazeera that Iran was capable of producing a nuclear bomb, although it has not yet been decided whether it will be built. Following these statements, Kochavi said that preparing a "military option against Iran's nuclear programme is a moral obligation and a national security order". "The IDF continues to prepare for an attack on Iran and must prepare for any development and any scenario," he said. Biden, while in Israel, also warned that the US would use force "as a last resort" to curb Tehran's nuclear ambitions.