Algeria Islamist party slams Morocco PM as 'traitor' after Israel normalisation deal

The head of Algeria's Movement for a Society of Peace (MSP) party, Abderrazak Makri, has slammed Morocco's prime minister as a "traitor" over his country's decision to normalise ties with Israel.

Makri's remarks followed Moroccan premier Saad Eddine El Othmani's signing of a formal deal with Israel in Rabat on Tuesday.

"The Head of the [Moroccan] government and General Secretary of Justice and Development party [El Othmani] should be the most ashamed among the deal signatories because of his betrayal to his principles and previous position towards normalisation," Makri wrote on facebook

"We believe that this party includes people who are credible in their support for the Palestinians' struggle against the Zionist occupier, but if the institutions of the party approved this betrayal, it means that it has officially become Zionist," he added.

Makri, who heads Algeria's largest Islamist party, added that El Othmani's "claims of support for the Palestinian cause as a pretext is fraud and false allegation."

Morocco became the third Arab state this year, after the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, to normalise ties with Israel under US-brokered deals, while Sudan has pledged to follow suit.

As part of the Morocco-Israel deal, Trump fulfilled a decades-old goal of Morocco by backing its contested sovereignty in Western Sahara.

The move infuriated the Algerian-backed pro-independence Polisario Front, which controls about one fifth of the desert territory that was once a Spanish colony.

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