Morocco and Israel present a resolution to the UN on preventing and combating pandemics
In the framework of the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly, Morocco has adopted the first historic Political Declaration on Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response together with Israel. This resolution provides high-level political leadership, not only to better prepare for and respond to pandemics, but also to help advance the ongoing work of international health agencies.
A few days before the resolution was tabled, the Moroccan media outlet Maghreb Intelligence already advanced this information based on Moroccan sources at the United Nations. According to the portal, Israel and Morocco were tasked with coordinating one of the most significant events of the current General Assembly.
Today we adopted the 1st ever historic Political Declaration on Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness & Response, co-facilitated by 🇲🇦&🇮🇱 providing HL political leadership not only to prepare better& respond to pandemics but help in advancing ongoing work on INB & IHR in Geneva pic.twitter.com/9EOzHdI43C
— Permanent Mission of Morocco to the UN (@Morocco_UN) September 20, 2023
The resolution has been prepared by Gilad Erdan, Israel's representative to the UN, and his Moroccan counterpart, Omar Hilale. The two diplomats worked together with the World Health Organisation (WHO) to prepare the resolution. As the Moroccan delegation to the UN points out, after months of negotiations led by Morocco and Israel, the adoption of the PPPR Political Declaration "is a commitment by world leaders" to tackle future pandemics.
This resolution contains clear actions and firm commitments that could serve as a catalyst to prevent tragedies like COVID-19 from happening again. "Ambassador Hilale's leadership in this important UN process was highly commended in the room," adds the Moroccan delegation.
Le Maroc se réjouit de l'adoption historique de la Déclaration politique sur la Prévention, Préparation et Riposte aux Pandémies. Le leadership de l'Ambassadeur Hilale🇲🇦, Co-facilitateur de cet important processus onusien a été hautement salué dans la salle. pic.twitter.com/xWsmsifL6g
— Permanent Mission of Morocco to the UN (@Morocco_UN) September 20, 2023
According to the Moroccan media, this declaration urges Heads of State and Government to mobilise political action at national, regional and international levels to prevent and combat pandemics, which is a real challenge for humanity, as we have seen in recent years with the coronavirus and its consequences.
This is the first resolution signed between Morocco and Israel, which is a further step in strengthening relations between the two countries. Since re-establishing ties in December 2020 thanks to US mediation, the two nations have boosted bilateral cooperation in different sectors.
This strategic partnership has been combined with meetings between senior officials of the two governments, as well as historic visits that have concluded with the signing of agreements on relevant issues such as security, health, defence and politics.
Bilateral ties have experienced a great boost after Israel officially recognised Western Sahara as part of Morocco, a decision that has also been taken by other countries such as Spain and the United States. On the other hand, shortly after the recent earthquake in Morocco, Israel offered humanitarian aid and rescue teams to the affected areas.
In this regard, the Israeli emergency service United Hatzalah has opened medical clinics in Morocco's Atlas Mountains to provide medical care and humanitarian aid to the victims of the earthquake.
