First Independent Mena Newspaper
Three years down the road from the wave of Arab Spring revolutions that affected the Middle East and North Africa region, MENA economies remain depressed. Egypt’s gross domestic product contracted by about 3 percent in the second quarter of 2013 while the growth rate amounted to only 2 percent last year, when compared to 2.3 […]
In a move to restore its economy after the 2011 uprising, Tunisia plans to issue for the first time an Islamic bond or sukuk worth 700m dinars ($435.85m) with the guarantee of the Islamic Development Bank and $1.8bn in new foreign bonds this year; $880m guaranteed by the United States and $1bn guaranteed by Japan. […]
A resolution authorising European Union troops to use force in the Central African Republic (CAR), which has been torn apart by inter-religious violence over the past few months, was approved in a crucial UN Security Council earlier this week. This follows the EU’s own approval of a military operation, in which up to 600 soldiers […]
European Union foreign ministers meeting in Brussels on Monday (20 January) agreed to dispatch a battalion-sized force counting up to 1,000 soldiers to Central African Republic (CAR) to help to stabilize the war-torn African country. Being effectively the EU’s first major army operation in six years, the intervention by the 28-nation bloc comes after UN […]
Morocco has stressed the need to foster trust between the parties to the Middle East peace process and urged these parties to show the much needed sense of realism and spirit of compromise in order to push forward the peace process. The call was launched by Morocco’s King Mohammed VI during the opening of the […]
The Al-Quds Committee which is holding its 20th session in Marrakesh this January 17-18 under the presidency of Mohammed VI, King of Morocco and chairman of the Committee, is poised to send a strong message to Israel about its unlawful practices in the holy city, deemed by Muslims, Christians and Jews as a common heritage. […]
Because of the mounting security situation in the region of Sahel, closer cooperation and integration in Maghreb is needed. According to the final concluding remarks of the 11th Morocco-EU Association Council, the EU28 stressed the salience of tight cooperation between the MENA and Sahel-Sahara region. The effort of closer collaboration between Sahel and Maghreb was […]
The inter-governmental Middle East and North Africa Financial Action Task Force (MENA-FATF) removed Morocco from the list of countries that need a follow-up process on the concerns of money laundering and financing terrorism. Rabat celebrates, as the country’s endeavor to fight fraud and dubious financing is witnessing first results. Morocco has been also removed from […]
A new fisheries agreement between the European Union and Morocco has finally been approved on Tuesday by the European Parliament after two years of long and arduous negotiations. The new four year fisheries agreement, approved at a plenary session by 310 votes to 204, with 49 abstentions, will allow fishing vessels from 11 EU countries, […]
The EU’s defense ministers are to discuss next week the call for the Union to consider equipping African armies. This highly controversial idea that was put forward by a group of countries led by Germany is likely to trigger a sharp debate within and between the EU’s institutions. Proponents of the idea argue that the […]