Yessir, Jihadis are very active in the north of Africa and Algeria is encroaching on Morocco a stones throw from Europe, meanwhile in Djibouti... things escalate with China and the Jihadis and someone has to guard the gates..
“The backdrop to these purchases is the increasing tension between Algeria and Morocco in a territorial dispute along the Western Sahara. Morocco needs weapons and, mostly, defensive weapons for BORDER CONTROL and protection.”
But what kind of message does that send to Western Saharians?
[In December 2020, Morocco joined the Abraham Accords paving the way for full normalization with Israel.]
And this will grow. Other countries will join.
[Algeria, which has close ties with the Iranian government, is exercising a strong show of hostility towards Morocco]
Fitting, with all that is going on.
They are mostly not Arabic speaking in Morocco. Israel had good relations with non-Arab Muslim countries, such as Turkey and Iran under the Shah.
I am not sure why Morocco cannot buy that equipment from the US, UK, or France.
Israeli weapons are world class in capabilities and the new defense pact no doubt includes Israeli intelligence cooperation with Morocco and assistance with border security, two specialties with which Israel has unique regional and cultural competence.
Algeria has been acting very aggressively towards Morocco, since the military junta there still uses Nasserite Arab fascism as a principle of legitimacy while Morocco (together with Saudi Arabia) is the last Arab colonial-era monarchy still in place. The Algerians support the independence of the Western Sahara which the Moroccans hold with US and French support.