PUSL.- Weapons tested in each war Israel wages see a spike in global demand. The current Gaza war is the latest laboratory for its arms industry. (Paddy Dowling Published On 17 Nov 2023 in Aljazeera)
Morocco has been upgrading its military forces capacity with Israeli weapons, spyware and other high tech military gadgets to be used against the Saharawi population both in the occupied territories as well as to attack Polisario on the front line of the war that erupted in December 2020.
According to the Israeli news website CALCALIST, the Abraham Accords had a positive effect on the arms industry and in 2022, Arab countries accounted for a quarter of Israel’s defence exports when they purchased weapons from it for approximately $3 billion. The most notable deals were made in the United Arab Emirates, which purchased Barak 8 missiles from the Israel Defense Forces to protect some of its strategic facilities against a possible Iranian attack, and in Morocco, which is rapidly equipping itself with Israeli weapons, including Barak 8 missiles, for an amount estimated at half a billion dollars.
The warming security relations with Morocco, which, apart from defence missiles, included the procurement of additional systems, have largely flown under the radar. According to reports, from august this year, in Morocco, Elbit Systems will establish two factories in the Casablanca area that will manufacture components for drones and roving munitions. Elbit refuses to comment on these reports. IAI also offers its expertise in the field of roving munitions to Morocco, as part of its ongoing war against the Polisario Front in the Western Sahara. The Israeli government has recognised Morocco’s sovereignty over this region, in a way that expresses the warming of relations between the two countries.
Apparently, the genocide that is taken place in Gaza does not impress the Moroccan Government nor the King since they did not interrupt their dealings with Israel in the military cooperation, instead they continue to buy Israeli “war tested” equipment that has so far killed over 18 600 Palestinians. a vast majority of them children and women.
The weapons sold by Israel are well known all over the world for their “field tested” results. Which does not mean anything else than that the weapons were tested on the ground against the Palestinian population.
The French newspaper La Tribune also reported last week that Morocco recently decided to use Israeli technology rather than French technology in the design of its next observation satellite. The decision was taken at the end of last summer, with Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) being chosen as the satellite’s manufacturer, ruling out competing proposals from French companies Airbus Defence & Space and Thales Alenia Space (TAS).
The Mohammed VI system, which consists of two Pleiades-type Earth observation and reconnaissance satellites (designated A and B), was initially designed by Thales Alenia Space for the payload, while Airbus was responsible for designing the satellite platform. The project was carried out on behalf of the Royal Centre for Remote Sensing.
It is reported that the Moroccan authorities even refused to meet with the French Direction Générale de l’Armement (DGA), which was seeking to lobby in favour of bids from French companies.
As a result, Israel Aerospace Industries was commissioned to manufacture the Ofek-13, the latest model of satellite launched by Israel. This spy satellite, equipped with synthetic aperture radar and highly advanced technological capabilities, will provide the army with better quality images and advanced intelligence-gathering capabilities.
This decision seems to indicate that Morocco has chosen to dispense with the services of Thales Alenia Space and Airbus. These two French companies had previously sold Morocco two spy satellites in 2013 for a sum more than €500 million.
These satellites, known as Mohammed-VI A and Mohammed-VI B, were of the Pleiades type and included a payload comprising an optical instrument, an image transmission subsystem and a ground segment for processing and producing the data collected.
The final agreement between Morocco and France on the order for the Mohammed-VI A and Mohammed-VI B spy satellite system was signed in 2013 during French President François Hollande’s official visit to Morocco.
The Sahara issue is the prism through which Morocco now views its international environment, and the yardstick by which the “sincerity of the friendships” and the “effectiveness of the partnerships” that the Kingdom of Morocco establishes are measured,” King Mohammed VI stressed.
