02-08-2025
The 2006 Scandal: Moroccan Regime's Relationship With the Zionist Entity
The well-known Belgian politician and journalist, Claude Moniquet, revealed a scandal in which Mohamed Yacine Mansouri, head of the Moroccan External Intelligence Service (DGED), visited Israel in 2006 to attend high-level meetings with the Israeli intelligence agency, Mossad.
Moniquet asserted that relations between the Moroccan regime and Israel were not the result of the normalisation agreement that took place before the world's eyes in December 2020, but rather date back decades.
Claude Moniquet is not just a journalist. He is a politician, the former leader of the Belgian 'LiDem' party, and has worked for numerous French media, most notably the weekly 'L'Express.' He is also a former agent of the French Directorate-General for External Security (DGSE), and has connections with Moroccan intelligence, which lends his confessions a remarkable degree of credibility.
In a post on his X account, Claude Moniquet wrote: 'I learned from a reliable Israeli source that during the 33-day war between Israel and Hezbollah (in July 2006), Mehdi Hajaouy personally organized a trip for Yacine Mansouri (the head of the Moroccan foreign intelligence service) to Israel to attend high-level meetings with the Mossad and a visit the front line on the northern border', with Lebanon.
This testimony brought considerable trouble to the double agent of both French and Moroccan intelligence, evident in the campaign he was subjected to, which he blamed on the Moroccan regime's thugs. They attempted to brand him as working for Algeria, an allegation he vehemently denied. He recalled his past in a second post on X, reaffirming his unwavering positions: '… Let my few critics know that I am not 'paid by Algeria,' but rather continue to support the Kingdom of Morocco, among other things, in the Western Sahara issue…'
The Belgian politician's testimony, which sparked considerable controversy in the Alawite kingdom and its supportive lobbies in Europe, came in the context of his publication of confidential information about the second-in-command of the Moroccan foreign intelligence service, Mehdi Hajaoui, who fled Morocco months ago. This information also comes amidst the media campaign against him.
Claude Moniquet said, 'The Moroccan 'judiciary' allegedly accuses Mehdi Hajaoui of various 'criminal acts,' but his French lawyers, William Bourdon and Vincent Brengarth, were able to a 'strictly political procedure supported by judicial setup…', and considered the allegations against the man to be mere false allegations designed to discredit Hajaoui.
The Moroccan intelligence agent denied all the articles covering the Mehdi Hajaoui case, which claimed that he never held any strategic position in Moroccan intelligence. He added: 'I can provide personal testimony highlighting the extent to which the claims spread (obviously on orders) by the Moroccan media are unfounded. Between 2005 and 2014… I had regular contact with Mehdi Hijaouy, son of a now-deceased general who was close to King Hassan II. He was then chief of staff of Yacine Mansouri, the head of the DGED (Moroccan General Directorate of External Documentation).
'On two occasions, Hijaouy organised triangular meetings (Mansouri, Hijaouy and me), in Mr. Mansouri's own office. At the same time, after the London attacks (July 2025), Hijaouy organised a meeting for me dedicated to jihadist groups (among others al-Qaeda) in the Maghreb', Moniquet added.
He explained that 'the meeting took place at the DGED headquarters, and was attended by officials from various departments of the service. Mehdi Hijaouy chaired the discussions. He subsequently organised other meetings: with Army Corps General Benani, who then commanded the 'southern zone', with Fouad Ali Himma (currently the Moroccan king's advisor)… among others at the 'La Tour Hassan' hotel in Rabat, then Secretary of State for the Interior and very close to King Mohammed VI and with other important security officials'.
Claude Moniquet also confirmed that, 'finally, at other times, I was able to personally verify with contacts in the French and Israeli intelligence communities that Mehdi Hijaouy was extremely appreciated there and was an important vector of security cooperation between Rabat and Paris on the one hand and Rabat and Tel Aviv on the other', this enabled him to arrange a visit by Mohamed Yacine Mansouri, head of the Moroccan External Intelligence Service (DGED), to the Zionist entity in 2006, to attend high-level meetings with the Zionist intelligence agency, Mossad.
Moniquet point out that Mehdi Hijaouy was the first DGED officer to benefit (in September 2000) from anti-terrorist training organised by the Zionist intelligence services.
He believes that 'the revelations of the Moroccan press put into perspective, allow me simply, in conclusion, to regret that questions of personal rivalries and jealousy push a large service like the DGED to engage in such a settling of scores which can only harm its image, the security of Morocco, the relations between the DGED and the allied services and the morale of its officers who can now fear being abandoned and publicly exposed from one day to the next'.
