Morocco has emerged as the third-largest importer of arms from Israel, with an 11% uptick in Israeli arms acquisitions over the last four years, according to a list of the 40 largest importers of major arms and their main suppliers for 2019–2023 by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) published on Monday.
Despite a decrease in Israel’s share of global defense exports, Israeli arms exports to Morocco have been increasing since the Abraham Accords were signed in December 2020.
Considered a global arms power, Israel was the ninth largest arms exporter worldwide during the period 2019-2023.
Other major importers of Israeli armaments include the United Kingdom at the top of the list, with the Philippines following closely thereafter, according to the SIPRI report.
However, the report revealed that overall arms sales in the Middle East declined by 12% from 2019 to 2023.
As an arms importer, Morocco ranked seventh in the Arab world and 29th globally, behind Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, and Algeria.
On a global scale the Kingdom’s proportion of worldwide arms imports decreased to 0.8% during 2019 to 2023, from 1.4% in the period between 2014 to 2018.
Morocco’s top arms supplier is the United States, which provides 69% of its arms, followed by France at 14%, with Israel coming in third.