First Independent Mena Newspaper
The Syrian war has taken a new turn with the downing of an Israeli fighter jet conducting airstrikes against Iranian targets. The incident signals the beginning of a direct military confrontation between Israel and Iran on Syrian soil. Syria today is better described as several intersecting wars, rather than the government-versus-rebels narrative it started out […]
Israeli media is awash with reports and analyses on an upcoming war on Iran-backed Shiaa militia Hezbollah. Buoyed by inroads in the Syrian war, Hezbollah has bolstered its regional foothold, raising fears in Israel that it may have acquired and smuggled game changing weapons into its Lebanese strongholds, and prompting Israel to carry strikes inside […]
The return of Morocco to the African Union and its recent membership in the pan-African organization’s most important body, the Peace and Security Council, is vindicating the fears of the Polisario separatists and their mentor, Algeria. As the noose tightens around the Polisario in the Tindouf camps, where combustible factors of unrest, corruption and oppression […]
Morocco is making its fifth bid to host the 2026 World Cup, the first edition to involve 48 teams and 80 games packed into 32 competition days. The North African nation’s bid to host the World Cup will yet be an up-hill battle as it runs up against the joint might of the United States, […]
The worsening economic conditions and the lack of structural reforms to improve the living standards of the population is auguring ill for the MENA region, which should brace for a surge of civil unrest in 2018 says an analysis published on the website of the UK’s leading Think Thank, Chatham House. The analysis, signed by […]
The recent death of three Moroccan women in a stampede at the Ceuta border crossing, has cast light on an unsustainable situation in the Spanish-occupied city in northern Morocco. From smuggling to illegal immigration and extremism, the northern city -called Sebta by Moroccans- has become a tinder box waiting to explode with the issue of […]
Morocco has gradually entrenched its foothold at the African Union, reaping the benefits of its triumphal return with a landslide support within the pan-African organization. The election of Morocco to the AU Peace and Security Council is a step forward towards putting the AU on track of addressing Africa’s pressing issues of security and stability […]
Since it joined the African Union a year ago, Morocco has been working closely with African states to address the continent’s pressing issues, notably migration, sustainable development and peace and security. The next African summit, the 30th, scheduled on January 28-29, will see Morocco present a new Agenda on Migration in Africa along with the […]
Tension in relations between Egypt and Sudan has been soaring on the backdrop of the two countries’ diverging foreign policy stands along with an unresolved territorial dispute over the Halaib triangle and disagreements concerning the distribution of the Nile water, in the wake of Ethiopia’s building of a mega dam over the river. The long-brewing […]
Battered by a sharp decline in its international reserves, Algeria made of tourism a key sector to relieve its economy from an acute dependency on oil revenues. However, little is done to boost the contribution of tourism in GDP, which remains limited to 1.4% in 2016 with most tourists being Algerian expatriates returning to visit […]