First Independent Mena Newspaper
After 35 years, the United Nations Mission in the Sahara (MINURSO) has outlived any justification for its existence. Established in 1991 to oversee a ceasefire and organize a referendum that never happened, the mission has become a symbol of bureaucratic inertia, financial waste, and the artificial internationalization of a regional dispute over Morocco’s southern provinces. […]
In a sharply worded op-ed published on 29 October 2026, the Franco-Algerian writer and intellectual Boualem Sansal argues that Morocco has decisively outpaced Algeria in the long-running contest for regional leadership and influence across Africa. The OP-ed published by le350, frames the rivalry between the two North African neighbors as an ongoing “match without a […]
The US-drafted Security Council resolution on the Moroccan Sahara was not adopted on Friday due to a Russian veto. Yet, with 11 votes in favor and three abstentions – and only Russia voting against – the text highlighted a clear shift in positions inside the Council, placing Morocco’s autonomy initiative under Moroccan sovereignty at the […]
In a development of major significance for Morocco’s territorial integrity, the United Nations Security Council today did not renew the mandate of the peacekeeping mission, known as MINURSO, a move Rabat described as the withdrawal of the file for the UN. Russia and the US vetoed each other’s resolutions renewing the mandate of the mission […]
UN Secretariat has abruptly scrapped a photographic exhibition hostile to Morocco’s territorial integrity, dealing a hard blow to the Algerian military regime, its Polisario armed militias and their supporters. The exhibition was organized by Namibia with the support of Algeria, Belize, South Africa, Timor-Leste, and Uganda, in one of the corridors of the United Nations […]
Algeria’s emerging military role in Niger raises a fundamental question: what exactly does Algeria bring to the Sahel besides what seems to be self-serving troop deployment? For decades, Algerian officials presented themselves as champions of regional stability. Yet many of the jihadist movements that have destabilized the Sahel trace their origins, leadership, or ideological lineage […]
Algeria’s parliament has formally agreed to authorize the deployment of Algerian troops to Niger. The decision was never genuinely in the hands of the lawmakers. It had already been taken by President Abdelmadjid Tebboune and the military clique that effectively runs the country. The vote was pure theater. This move was prepared well in advance […]
Diplomatic attention is focused on the UN Security Council in New York, where members are set to vote later this month on a new resolution concerning the Sahara dispute. The text, drafted by the United States as penholder, is expected to advance a final settlement based on Morocco’s expanded autonomy plan under its sovereignty. A […]
A new analysis by Spain’s prestigious Real Instituto Elcano concludes that Morocco has successfully transformed its partnership with the United States into a broad strategic relationship, while Spain faces the risk of gradually losing influence over Washington’s North Africa agenda. Published on 16 October, the report by Carlota García Encina and Charles Powell notes that […]
An Algerian court has sentenced economist and academic Djelloul Slama to four years in prison for publicly doubting the economic viability of the Gara Djebilet iron mine, one of the regime’s most heavily promoted industrial projects. The Dar El Beïda tribunal in Algiers handed down the verdict on Thursday, 15 October 2026, along with a […]