First Independent Mena Newspaper
As it heads straight to insolvency, Algeria insists on shunning foreign debt as it resorts to unconventional measures involving the Central Bank money printing to delay an impending bankruptcy in the absence of genuine reforms. After Algerian Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia announced a five-year plan to reduce his country’s ballooning budget deficit by borrowing directly […]
The 4th Committee of the UN General Assembly adopted without a vote a draft resolution reiterating support for the UN Secretary General and his Personal Envoy in their efforts to resolve the Sahara dispute through a consensual solution. The resolution supports the negotiation process initiated by resolution 1754 (2007) of the Security Council and backed […]
Since the first visit to Moscow by King Mohammed VI in 2002, Morocco and Russia have been working together to deepen their strategic partnership and expand their cooperation to new areas including energy and new industries. The visit by Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev to Morocco, which comes after the visit paid by King Mohammed VI […]
The stability of the Algerian regime has long rested on its generous handouts powered by its oil revenues. With the oil price plunge, and which is set to continue, the Algerian government is bracing for tougher times threatening to erode its social peace. The oil price slump, which started in 2014 dealt a heavy blow […]
Algeria’s disillusioned diplomacy is apparently resorting to fake news claiming that the SADR separatist entity will be invited to the Africa-EU summit. As it endures setbacks one after the other in its ideologically anachronistic foreign policy, Algeria indulges in terminology games claiming that the African Union and the EU are negotiation to change the appellation […]
Morocco, which puts counterterrorism at the top of its priorities, has been re-elected along with the Netherlands to the co-Chairmanship of the Global Counterterrorism Forum (GCTF) for another two-year mandate. The decision was made during the 8th GCTF ministerial plenary meeting convened Wednesday in New York. Moroccan foreign minister Nasser Bourita said the extension of […]
Algeria has been repeatedly lambasted in reports by international rights watchdogs for its systematic discrimination against minorities, whether religious, linguistic or ethnic. Intolerance towards minorities is espoused at the state level as evidenced by the growing religious intolerance and persecution targeting the Ahmadi community, among other communities. Religious minorities Recently, HRW raised the alarm concerning […]
Spain’s car parts maker, Ficosa, is planning to set up in Morocco a plant specialized in producing in-vehicle cameras, Spanish media reported. The Catalonia-based Ficosa, which has been sold to Japan’s Panasonic last July, plans to invest €50 million in two new plants in Morocco and Malaysia respectively. The Moroccan factory will be located in […]
In the face of the paralysis crippling the Maghreb union, Tunisia is following the example of Morocco by repositioning itself on the African continent. Tunisia’s bid to join the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is thus part of an endeavor to seek regional integration facilitating the flow of goods and investments in an […]
The Moroccan origins of the perpetrators of the Barcelona and Cambrils attacks offered an easy scapegoat for pundits and media outlets in their attempts to ascribe terrorism to an external factor. By doing so, they further stigmatize a community of 800,000 Moroccan expatriates in Spain and fail to consider the deep causes of Europe’s residual […]