and where we can still say the same prayers were used i'm sure the virgin would gladly make an exception in this case and visit each one of us in our homes. the annual pilgrimage for the day of the virgin of guadalupe is a tradition that reaches far beyond mexico's fielders even though travel to her sanctuary won't be possible this year faithful catholics in mexico and around the earth finding other ways to worship melinda al-jazeera mexico city. hello again the headlines on al-jazeera the u.s. has become the latest country to approve the pfizer bio and intel coronavirus vaccine for emergency use the president says the 1st those could be administered within 24 hours with millions more set for a nationwide distribution mike hanna has more from washington d.c. the company pfizer says that it will be able to roll out $20000000.00 doses within

24 hours of the approval so we could be looking at the vaccine being delivered to various states as soon as a sunday but it's truly astounding it's taken a 9 months to develop this particular vaccine in emergency use and one must put this into context because the previous fosters vaccine development was that 4 months which took 4 years to develop the u.s. supreme court has rejected a legal bed from the state of texas to overturn donald trump's election defeat trump had backed the lawsuit that sought to throw out results in 4 key states where joe biden won for the past 5 weeks several legal challenges have been raised and rejected across the country seeking to stop biden's when before it's officially certified next week. iran has executed a dissident journalist convicted of fueling anti-government unrest in 27 and 28000 that's according to state media were captured by the revolutionary guard and 2019

after years in exile new evidence in the case of an italian student tortured and murdered in egypt could further implicate security officials there video clips obtained by al-jazeera from italian judicial sources indicate for the 1st time the 28 year old researcher joy origine was being monitored while in egypt . the trumpet ministration is pushing ahead with a planned $1000000000.00 arms sale to morocco if approved by the u.s. congress the deal will provide robots with priss and guided weapons and drones on thursday it was announced that morocco will normalize relations with israel and a u.s. brokered deal those are the latest headlines on al-jazeera will have more news at the top of the hour that's right after inside story thanks for watching the american people have finally poken the america is isolated when america is all balanced the world becomes more dangerous the world is looking and i was extra of

sanusi. with the election behind us the republican party dumptruck with the fuel we keep take on us politics and society that's the bottom line. betrayal of palestinians for political pragmatism rocco says it will reestablish ties with israel the reward is the u.s. recognition about sovereignty over the disputed western so hard but how does this boost morocco's claim to this territory this is inside story. hello and welcome to the program i'm jim jhoom morocco is joining 3 other arab nations in recognizing the state of israel and establishing full diplomatic ties the trumpet ministration negotiated the 4 deals in what many are describing as

a quid pro quo style in the case of morocco normalization came in exchange of a u.s. proclamation of sovereignty trump recognized the kingdom of morocco its claim over the western sahara automatically sidelining decades of united nations efforts to resolve the dispute in that region we'll get to our discussion in a moment but 1st this report from stephanie decker. the announcement came in a presidential tweet calling it a historic breakthrough and a massive breakthrough for peace in the middle east morocco and israel agreeing to full diplomatic relations it's another victory for the israeli prime minister america follows the u.a.e. bahrain in sudan in recognizing israel and establishing full diplomatic relations this is the foundation on which we can now build this peace will resume liaison offices quickly between israel and morocco and work as rapidly as possible to establish full diplomatic relations we also institute direct flights between morocco in israel and israel morocco giving this bridge of peace and even more

solid foundation this will be a very warm peace in return the top administration has gone against decades of u.s. policy and agreed to recognize the disputed western sahara region as moroccan. question sorry has been disputed for decades between morocco and the pro independence police are your front the 1st country in the world to recognize the iraq war 65 countries there are. recognition. and siding with. only the united states has recognized the claims. process. for a long time and. international law concerns. population. in order to get. the palestinians of condemned the agreement saying it's yet another country to

break the promise of not recognizing israel until the establishment of a palestinian state but more and more arab countries are stablish in ties with israel whereas the reality of a palestinian state seems to fade further and further away it's hailed as yet another victory for israel another unilateral move by this outgoing administration who have little more than a month left in office stephanie decker al-jazeera. all right let's bring in our guests in new york at liege a cubs a partner with the truman national project and president of public affairs consultancy firm e.j. strategies from about last and had the strategic affairs analyst and a former moroccan minister and in battle it out i mean hootie director of global engagement at the american university of beirut welcome to the show looks and let me start with you this normalization deal between morocco and israel has been

discussed for a while now but how much of a shock was it that morocco's agreement was clinched in return for american recognition of moroccan sovereignty over the disputed western sahara region. why think morocco has had relations with israel in the 1990 s. as part of the last of cord and morocco has had like here economic relations at that moment and then he'd had them when the netanyahu government walked away from the spirit and the letter of the chords but i think now is a ripe moment for that to resume while understanding that morocco is very friendly and also has good relations with the palestinians the king of morocco is the president of the committee of jerusalem so i don't think that it's walking away from the palestinians but i think it's a country could have i mean like an arab country could have leverage with both

entities it's morocco morocco has like a very large that are in israel and also has very important influence within israel but also has very good relations with the palestinians but i think it's good for the peace because the peace has has experimented with a lot of other things i mean like with the war with also budget cuts in israel with different kinds of of i mean with the peace accords have been all of that maybe let me get this one this kind of approach with with bear fruits but i don't think that those who say that recognizing or like normalizing the relations with israel means like sidestep in the palestinians or manage life in them i don't agree with that i think it will probably provide an opportunity for that to happen and i think that that morocco has had i mean like there is of course that. the recognition of united states for the west and to have and maybe we're going to talk about that but i think the core of the peace process in the middle east i think we need to be

creative we need to have like new solutions we need to create new realities on those realities will help the with with with probably like bring it to peace and when the king called the palestinian leader yesterday where he said this. said like iraq will stay committed. with the palestinians about it to a state solution about a demo to rely on 1967 about the plan of the day it was a limb should become public or to the country is so morocco is not a way for a good getting away from that but actually it's not related in relations with israel like other countries of the wind that lot of the group in countries and other countries they have they do with international legality but at the same time they have relations with both entities ele winning us recognition of moroccan sovereignty over the region has been a chief policy goal and demand for morocco for a long time hasn't yet it's a definitely seems to be the biggest issue the morocco faces diplomatically

certainly in the region there's obviously a longstanding tension with the immediate neighbors in the in the region as well as the europeans the u.n. as has not taken steps to allow the americans to to recognize their sovereignty over in the western sahara so this was a really big deal and in a in a sense they played their hand very well knowing that donald trump is essentially all about transactions and he just wants to get his name more attached to good deals particularly on the international stage in the waning days of his presidency so they took what was their main diplomatic goal and as mike as your previous guest just mentioned essentially just reestablish something that was in existence 20 years ago for getting a huge win on their part so the moroccans come out very well in here at as do the israelis as do the americans rami how much does this deal benefit israel and how much does it benefit morocco. well i don't think it

really benefits anybody except the united states the moroccans have their views on the western sahara and the world does not recognize those views there's a process at the u.n. that has not been implemented that's a very difficult conflict to resolve that has to do with self-determination of the moroccans trail that or of case of the moroccan leadership and change feel that this is good for their country we don't know what the american people feel because those public opinion views are not always clearly expressed so it's hard to tell what this does other than gets an brownie points with a fading slightly delusional american political leadership that's leaving the stage now highly discredited all around the world and basically trying to use its power to either free criminals in jail in washington or indicted people in washington or help the israelis and therefore pay favors back to the pros really donors in the

united states this is a very because the guests are very transactional the process that doesn't really benefit anybody in the significant way because anybody who has any knowledge of israel the palestinians the middle east know trump knows that the source lightly public relations gestures more than anything else they don't have any serious impact on the situation on the ground they are a consequence of the lack of movement by the israelis to accept international law lack of leadership by the palestinians to lead their people towards a remarkable peace and they are new of course is that it was a test in morocco in $1081.00 that the 1st arab peace plan that was presented that they are for 50 years 40 years now have expressed the desire willingness to live in full peace and relations with israel without having to do side deals on the. on the

quiet so this isn't really a not a very serious move it's a public relations move primarily for the americans on the israeli isn't we don't know what impact it'll have in morocco but we'll have to wait and see the house and i want to take a step back and look at you know the relationship more broadly between israel and morocco and you know for how long exactly it's been warming i mean what have the informal ties between morocco and israel been like. well we let me just address one issue i'm like about the impact on morocco writing that been here in iraq and also seen the really do reaction of a lot of americans they see 1000 very very sorry kim i mean i tell a lot of importance and the western sahara issues very sensitive a lot of moroccans and so it's it's the one issue that is very very highly sensitive for par for a 4 or 4 of the public opinion here in morocco and i think their support of

palestinians i mean like and their support also for the moroccan ness of the sahara the 2 most important priorities but to address your question i think that the american the american jews have left morocco in 1049156161167 make up hundreds of thousands of jews live in israel and they know they've never cut their ties between israel and proper so they come back for vacation they came back for pilgrimage is that a lot of jewish saints in morocco and that has been going on for the last 20 something years 25 years or or so and even in liking the government took it with barak at one time there were 8 ministers were americans so there is quite a leverage and influence that rap rap or has with a lot of jews especially the support of the jews that have left mara or of course and i think that paved the way for a lot of euphoria that exists the with the slow cords i mean like in the 1990 s.

and probably now i'm alexian from the reactions of a lot of people did jewish community american jewish community around the world and people have been sending me messages about about this they are elated by by this and they're related for 2 reasons one of them for the jews it's because now it's easier for them to come to morocco especially those of support of the core agenda and also because of this kind of historical recognition of the united states after . over the i think it's a watershed this will probably said the big game quite a lot of other recognitions well we know that that has been a lot of companies that have opened consulates in the west i mean like that of the sovereigns of morocco united states will open one as well in the. city so i think it's a watershed it's a really big and big beginning dissolution of the west and the hot issue in favor

of more up ellie how much does u.s. recognition of moroccan sovereignty over the western sahara undercut the independence movement in that region and could this recognition by the u.s. fuel instability there i mean how dramatically could things escalate things could dramatically escalate a great deal you know we've seen over the last few weeks some instigation infighting that has largely been peaceful for the last decade or decade or more i think the big question is whether or not president elect biden when he takes office continues to recognize the western sahara as part of morocco it's a question i mean just last yesterday afternoon jim an op who is the chairman of the armed services committee in the senate gave a blistering speech on the senate floor castigating president trump for this recognition going around the world opinion as i believe romney mentioned in terms of the u.n. so any independence movement that exists is either a good they're going to face one of 2 options they can either acquiesce to american

opinion or they can continue to seek their own independence using multi you know multilateral international bodies like the u.n. 'd or in a worst case scenario. go back to armed conflict which you know everyone hopes wasn't it doesn't happen but he didn't he did you never know what happens when people's backs are against the law like this and i mean the u.s. is the only western nation to recognize moroccan sovereignty over the western sahara is there a chance from your perspective that u.s. president elect joe biden might try and reverse donald trump's decision or is it more likely that he would affirm it it's hard to tell you know he put political decisions made by politicians even legitimately elected ones like biden are very hard to predict the politicians react to all kinds of different stimuli and pressures and calculations that have to do with domestic and international affairs my suspicion is that you know biden. seems to respect international law and un

decisions and things like that and consensus so it's unlikely that he will enthusiastically support this move or he might just kind of freeze it don't do nothing to overturn it but just freeze it and the not make it a. dynamic process or he might try to push for a renewed u.n. role to really get some something going on there that could implement the self-determination referendum that these are very hard things to predict what is clear is that this is a decision that was made largely largely driven by self interest in a few people in the white house this is not an american national policy the world knows this the world looks at what trump is doing with very little respect especially now that he's leaving so i wouldn't attach that much importance the

united states is not the world's moral or political authority it has lost a lot of its credibility around the world so what it's doing in the western sahara will be determine what happen. this will be determined by the people in morocco or people in western 'd global international legitimacy and those of remain to be seen but it's similar to what's being done end the israeli occupation of 'd the golan heights on the west bank and east jerusalem where the united states under trump unilaterally takes a dramatic move which goes against all international or global international political consensus so i wouldn't put too much. i would attach too much importance to it the americans just it will just really need to wait till we get to the middle of next year when the biden administration and the international reaction in other places will become more clear that doesn't according to aim a moroccan royal court statement king hamad called palestinian president mahmoud

abbas and said that about stands by a 2 state solution to the israeli palestinian conflict the king added that negotiations between israel and the palestinians are the only way to reach a final lasting and comprehensive solution to the conflict but what does this normalization deal do when it comes to the negotiating position going forward of the palestinians let me just address one issue that the american interest in morocco's sovereignty over western sahara is not like new that has been a congress i mean like a bill passed by congress in 2013 and fined by president obama in 2014 which allows that the aid that gets somewhere up with to us aid could be spent also on lessons and so a lot of countries did not do that before and then united states opened that kind of venue and and and there was have been a lot of protests from from

a jury and also from all the saudi because that's a defacto recognition of rock with i wouldn't see over western european union also signed treaties where the morocco and fisheries are not in a culture. include the western sahara after bit before if you choose not to do that that's also defacto recognition of us and sorry to come back to your question i think what what america is like in relation to the palestinians barak who stands by that by by did genda by international law in terms that did the market demarkation line thank you 67 is the only line that with the existing between the 2 states the 2 state solution is the only solution and jerusalem is jerusalem the capital of the palestinian state and i think member stations between the 2 countries are of who could play a very important role in facilitating that kind of negotiation and i think that what is happening now between palestinian and israelis in terms of reopening the

analysts in terms of core the nation of risk unity comes also because of this kind of momentum created by the fact that some arab countries have recognized israel but also pushed in the right kind of direction in terms of never session between the israelis and palestinians. ellie what do you make of the moroccan government's reaction to washington's announcements some of suggested that it was a bit more muted than perhaps washington would have wanted to see i'm not going to fishel said they were committed only to reopening liaison offices with israel not embassies or consulates and they pledged to resume diplomatic relations as soon as possible what does that kind of language suggest oh we've seen polling over the last few years in polling going back to the arab opinion index and a poll more recently done in the last 6 or 7 months that shows a moroccan approval of israel is somewhere between 4 and 17 percent up at the most so there's obviously any recognition of israel may not be very popular with the

with the street the so-called street in morocco so downplaying the relations on iraq and on the moroccan royal courts part is a smart move politically domestic wise and on the foreign policy front it continues to at least in some ways keep pressure on the israelis to continue to try to do something with the palestinian problem the biggest issue that the palestinian the primary diplomatic tool the palestinians has had have had since the oslo accord certainly if not before and is the united support of the arab league the 22 nations of the arab league. who all signed on to the saudi plan in 2002 that there be no recognition no normalization until a withdrawal to the $167.00 lines of capital in history. for the palestinians and as each one of these arab countries goes ahead particularly you a year bahrain to actually normalize ties it chips away at that the palestinians advantage of having that united bloc behind them so the continued fact that saudi

arabia has not taken more outward normalization steps or even recognition steps morocco sort of downplaying it a little bit keeps hope i would think alive to some extent for the palestinians that they still have the support. and some of their arab allies at the same time the fact that the white house was so ecstatic about this decision by the moroccans that went didn't go as far as normalization ties the way that you were a year behind it could signal that they might be open to saudi doing something similar where it's not a full normalization agreement but it's something sort of you know a half a loaf getting there that i still don't believe the saudis are anywhere near in a position to do that i just don't see that that that the king will allow that that to happen but i think there's still a lot of time unfortunately for those of us that live in the u.s. there's still a lot of time in the trumpet ministration until joe biden takes takes office a lot of a lot of very strange things and unproductive precedented as much as the last 4

years have been i can still happen in the next 3030 or 40 days but i mean i saw you nodding along to some of what elie was saying so i want to ask if you have a reaction to what he was saying but also i want to ask you to expand a bit on some of the stuff that elie was talking about i mean despite repeated attempts donald trump has not been able to get saudi arabia to agree to normalization with israel yet despite repeated pressure despite repeated attempts and trips to the region does this deal with morocco make it easier for saudi arabia ultimately to sign on to the idea and i don't think so no these deals that have happened the 4 countries about 3 and a half really because some of them it was only the military side that agreed to do it and the civilian side of the government has criticized them very largely so you have 3 and a half arab leaderships that have done this and the people of these countries mostly don't have the chance to express their free opinion for that but to a large extent so we know from the surveys that we just heard and others that

public opinion is strongly supportive of palestine but is willing to live with israel if israel agrees to a post in their statement and say occupation so. there's so does i think are more sensitive to this sentiment them we might see. can the and possibly its the king versus the crown prince and saudi arabia the difference in age and generation i don't think the saudis and their sound you see themselves as keepers of the you know the sunni islamic identity around the world and whatever the holy places so they feel constraints. on them that other countries don't but in the final analysis we need to remember that these sort of decisions are a handful of men who are not politically accountable to their people who rely heavily on international support military security economic and other support that will matic and therefore we should not mistake these agreements for serious changes

in the political environment in the world what these what this agreement do indicate though is the combined incompetence and now i would say illegitimacy of the palestinian leadership the palestinian leadership has been the catastrophe for the palestinians of over the last 1015 years you can argue they did pretty well up till you know in 1000 that 2010 maybe about it but it's been a catastrophe ever sense and the inability of the palestinian leadership to lead the palestinians to or to a decent place has allowed these kind of deals to be made by individual arab leaders who have the feel they have nothing to lose when they do this and they have a lot to gain when the americans give them diplomatic goodies or some of them fancy arms and and the emirates and other other kinds of money in sudan therefore these

are transactional short term agreements done by a desperate american administration. as it leaves office trying to get some score some good points with arab leaders who. i don't really have any accountability to the people and therefore can do do whatever they want i'm sorry to interject there it's just that we've run out of time we're going to have to leave the conversation there thank you so much to all our guests ellie jacobs the house and had dad and me already and thank you too for watching you can see the program again any time by visiting our website of 0 dot com and for further discussion go to our facebook page that's facebook dot com forward slash a.j. inside story you can also join the conversation on twitter handle is at a.j. inside story for me mama general and the whole team here bye for now.

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lockdown on al-jazeera. the over the. u.s. regulators approved the emergency use of the pfizer bio untucked coronavirus vaccine . they're watching al-jazeera live from a headquarters in doha i'm very navigator also coming up president donald trump attacks the u.s. supreme court for rejecting a lawsuit against joe biden's victory. iran executes a journalist convicted of fueling antigovernment unrest and italian prosecutors released evidence showing how students are brutally murdered in turn 16 was.