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Morocco Becomes Huge Customer for Israel's Defense Industry
(Globes) Dean Shmuel Elmas - On July 9, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) announced an agreement worth $1 billion over five years with an unnamed third party. Foreign media has said that the deal was for Ofek 13 spy satellites and IAI chairman Amir Peretz was in Morocco when the deal was announced. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), even though Morocco and Israel did not normalize relations until December 2020, Israel was already in third place in terms of Morocco's defense imports. IAI sold the Barak MX air defense system to Morocco in 2022 for $540 million. It was reported in 2023 that IAI completed delivery of three Heron 1 UAVs to Morocco. The French newspaper L'Humanite reported this year that the Moroccan army operates Elbit Systems' Hermes 900 and Hermes 450 UAVs in the Western Sahara. Israel-Morocco security cooperation is not limited to weaponry. The IDF's new U.S.-made landing craft, the INS Komemiyut, stopped in Morocco for refueling on its long journey from Pascagoula, Mississippi, to the naval base in Haifa.