First Independent Mena Newspaper
The Moroccan government has elaborated a 2025 budget that bolsters spending on social protection as well as on the health and education reform, finance minister Nadia Fettah Alaoui said. The government will press ahead with the generalization of mandatory health coverage, financial assistance to needy families, and will launch the generalization of the pension system, […]
Tunisian lawmakers are preparing a law that would remove the exclusivity of the central bank in setting the benchmark interest rate, thus ending the bank’s monetary policy independence. The bill suggests that the central bank should set the interest rate after the approval of the government. President Kais Saied has often taken aim at the […]
The Spanish National Police announced having arrested in northern Spain two individuals presumed to be members of the terrorist ISIS organization, in an operation carried out in collaboration with Morocco’s General Directorate for Territorial Surveillance (DGST). The suspects were arrested in the cities of Itsasondo (Guipúzcoa) and Avilés (Asturias), for their alleged involvement in the […]
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres underlined in his annual report to the Security Council on the Sahara the opening, on August 14 in Dakhla, of Chad’s Consulate General, the 29th of its kind in the Kingdom’s southern provinces, which represents about 42% of the share of African countries. This reference takes place in an international […]
Morocco reiterated its position in support for the UAE’s sovereignty over three islands occupied by Iran. Morocco’s stance in support of the UAE’s territorial integrity is “steady and permanent,” Moroccan representative to the UN Omar Hilale told the Fourth Committee. Morocco also backed an Emirati request to end Iran’s occupation of the three Emirati islands […]
The European Council, the body that defines the European Union’s overall policies and priorities, called for strengthening ties with Morocco at all levels, echoing similar calls by member states following a politically biased verdict by the ECJ. The ECJ has meddled in the EU’s deals with third parties annulling trade deals with Morocco because they […]
Algeria is stuck in a logic of permanent conflict and its diplomacy suffers from a “schizophrenic pathology”, said Morocco’s permanent representative to the United Nations, Omar Hilale, about the North African country’s obsession with the Sahara issue. Responding before the 4th Committee of the UN General Assembly to the attacks of his Algerian counterpart, Amar […]
Morocco’s permanent mission pointed out during the 75th session of the Executive Committee of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, which concluded its works in Geneva on Friday, that the situation in Tindouf camps in Algeria contradicts the UNHCR’s general mandate. The mission, while reiterating its commitment to the noble humanitarian mandate entrusted to this […]
The World Bank has revised Tunisia’s 2024 economic growth forecast downward to 1.2%, compared to the 2.4% projected in April 2024. In its October 16, 2024 report, “Growth in the Middle East and North Africa,” the Bank expects Tunisia’s growth to stabilize at 2.2% in 2025. The report cites weak growth across the MENA region, […]
A Ministers’ Council, convened Friday in Rabat under the chairmanship of King Mohammed VI, debated and adopted the 2025 appropriation bill which seeks to boost social cohesion, enhance economic sovereignty, and to achieve a strong economic recovery, with a growth rate of 4.6% in 2025, and a limited inflation rate at 2%. At the start […]