First Independent Mena Newspaper
France gave Algeria six weeks to take its nationals sent back for violating French laws or else deals, such as the 1968 deals offering Algerians preferential treatment in settling and working in France, will be declared null and void. The ultimatum was issued by French prime minister François Bayrou after Algiers rejected three of its […]
The Algeria-backed polisario armed militias have been hit with a fresh blow after Abdullah Ocalan, leader of the Kurdish separatist group PKK, called on his outlawed movement to lay down its arms and dissolve itself to end a four-decade long conflict that has claimed tens of thousands of lives. “Convene your congress and make a […]
The G20 summit wrapped up in Africa without a joint communiqué amid an absence of the US and major financial chiefs. The United States boycotted the event citing South Africa’s “anti-Americanism”. The decision also came after fierce criticism by Trump, who accused the South African government of discrimination against its white minority. The absence of […]
Moroccan police arrested an Interpol-flagged Dutch citizen of Turkish origin on Thursday at Casablanca’s Mohammed V International Airport. The man is wanted for alleged involvement in arms trafficking. Casablanca police detained the suspect immediately upon arriving from Istanbul, Türkiye, after a routine security check flagged an international arrest warrant tying him to alleged participation in […]
Morocco’s ONCF has chosen France’s Alstom, Spain’s CAF, and South Korea’s Hyundai Rotem as manufacturers of its tender to buy 168 trains, including high-speed, intercity and urban trains. The new trains will help ONCF renew its existing fleet and accommodate for traffic growth, the rail operator said in a statement. It also added that the […]
President of the French Senate Gérard Larcher raised the need for an expanded French consular service that covers the Moroccan Sahara, which he called the Southern Provinces of Morocco. The call echoes a previous promise by French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot during president Macron’s visit to Rabat in October 2024. Since Paris backed Morocco’s sovereignty […]
France announced visa restrictions targeting Algerian “dignitaries” at a context of worsening bilateral relations, as Algeria continues to reject individuals ordered to leave France. A showdown went on for months between Algeria and France, since Paris declared its full support for Morocco’s sovereignty over the Sahara. Algeria has weaponized migration and rejected to take its […]
France’s support for Morocco’s sovereignty over its Sahara is “unquestionable”, Speaker of the French Senate Gérard Larcher said on Monday in Rabat, welcoming the Autonomy Plan proposed by Morocco as a “prospect for building the present and future of this region of the Kingdom.” Following talks with Chairman of the Royal Advisory Council for Saharan […]
The first International Federation of Fishing Tourism has been established lately in the Moroccan Saharan city of Dakhla in the presence of professional sport-fishermen, and national and foreign tourism operators. Representatives of several countries including Spain, Italy, Turkey, Greece, Tunisia and Mauritania took part in the Constitutive Assembly of this new entity which elected the […]
The arrest of novelist Boualem Sansal took place three months ago against the backdrop of worsening ties between Algeria and France, following Paris recognition of Morocco’s sovereignty over the Sahara. Through this arrest, the Algerian regime sent three messages to Sansal, France and Algerians, wrote former French ambassador Xavier Driencourt. In his first op-ed on […]