First Independent Mena Newspaper
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 […]
In the wake of the terrorist attacks that shook Barcelona and Finland, several media outlets and self-proclaimed pundits took the easy way of putting the blame on Morocco, the country of origin of most of the radicalized youth, instead of lambasting the European laxism and intelligence failure. The desperate attempts at pushing the name of […]
Tunisians of all walks of life are divided over the issue of gender equality in inheritance rights. A controversial reform of the inheritance law unveiled in this regard by President Beji Caid Essebsi and backed by the mufti of Tunisia has sparked fierce and endless debates between conservatives and liberals. Islamic (sharia) law generally gives […]
Algeria is in the midst of a new political meltdown, with the sacking of the Prime Minister Abdelmajid Tebboune who was replaced by the regime’s henchman Ahmed Ouyahya. Characterized by opacity, the Algerian regime is facing a new turmoil. Three months after the living-dead President Abdelaziz Bouteflika appointed Tebboune, the latter was dismissed after showing […]
In their quest to reach the European Eldorado, migrants are increasingly shunning the Libyan routes for security reasons in favor of the closer and less risky Moroccan-Spanish land and sea borders. Deaths in sea embarkations, almost impenetrable six-meter high fence and heavily patrolled land borders on the Moroccan and Spanish sides seem not dissuading thousands […]