RABAT, Dec 20 (Reuters) – Morocco said it will suspend air travel with the UK starting Sunday night, citing fears of a new coronavirus strain. Morocco had allowed some flights to resume linking tourist hubs Agadir and Marrakech with London, in a bid to save its hard-hit tourism sector.
Read more from the source : Reuters
Tags : Morocco, UK, covid 19,
The Trump-brokered deal between Morocco and Israel normalizes relations between the two states. But the outgoing president bought Morocco’s agreement by endorsing its ownership of Western Sahara — making the US the only major state to rubber-stamp an occupation regime condemned by international law.
Read more from the source : Jacobin Magazine
Tags : Western Sahara, Morocco, normalization, USA, Israel,
The authoritarian regime in Algiers is running out of options in its desperate attempt to draw Morocco as the enemy next door. After instigating its media and co-opted politicians to launch a vicious campaign against Morocco’s territorial integrity, now came the turn of mosques. In a blatant manipulation of religion and mosques to serve the hegemonic aims of the military regime, the Algerian religious affairs ministry ordered that the Friday sermon be turned into diatribes against Morocco’s right to its territorial integrity.
Read more from the source : The North Africa Post
Tags : Morocco, Algeria, Western Sahara,
On December 10th, Donald Trump upended over 30 years of US diplomacy with a tweet in which he declared American support for Morocco’s claims of sovereignty over Western Sahara. Since the 1970s, Morocco and a local group called the Polisario Front have fought for control of Western Sahara. In the early 1990s the United States brokered a ceasefire agreement which called for the people of Western Sahara to vote in a referendum to determine their status as an independent country. A UN Peacekeeping mission was deployed to region to help maintain the ceasefire and prepare for the vote.
Read more from the source : Global dispatches
Tags : Western Sahara, Morocco, Polisario, Donald Trump,
Rabat – Algeria’s Ministry of Islamic Affairs issued a document yesterday calling on all imams to speak about Western Sahara to oppose Morocco’s position on the conflict. In the circular, Algeria’s Islamic ministry also called on imams to speak about the Palestinian cause in response to Morocco’s decision to establish ties with Israel. The document has been viral on social networks since Thursday, promoting backlash and controversy. Morocco World News attempted to verify the original statement, but the ministry’s website had not published it publicly as of the time of writing.
Read more from the source : Morocco World News
Tags : Morocco, Algeria, Western Sahara,
Fighting erupted last month between Morocco and separatists in the disputed Western Sahara, a territory claimed by Morocco. The sparsely populated region is bordered by Algeria to the east, Mauritania to the east and south, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and Morocco to the north. First, Morocco launched a military operation in a U.N.-controlled buffer zone in a village called Guerguerat. The soldiers removed a camp of 60 peaceful protesters who were blocking traffic between the Moroccan-controlled side of Western Sahara and Mauritania.
Read more from the source : Foreign Policy
Tags : Western Sahara, Morocco, Africa,
Last week, Morocco became the latest country to agree to normalise relations with Israel. Now, a KAN journalist is calling upon the African nation to make a return to Eurovision for the first time in over 40 years. Morocco last took part in the contest in 1980, when they scored just seven points in their only appearance at the contest. With Israel returning to the contest after a one-edition break in 1981, Morocco withdrew – and have not returned since.
Read more from the source : ESCXTRA
Tags : Morocco, Eurovision, music festival,
(New York) – Morocco has cracked down on pro-independence activists in Western Sahara after an incident at a border crossing on November 13, 2020, Human Rights Watch said today. The incident re-ignited the long-stalled conflict between Morocco and the Polisario Front, the Algeria-based independence movement for the territory. Security forces broke up pro-independence demonstrations and harassed, beat up, arrested, or attacked the houses of several of the activists.
Read more from the source : HRW
Tags : Western Sahara, Human Rights Watch, Morocco,
On Dec. 10, Morocco scored a long-dreamed-of foreign policy victory. After decades of international impasse and intense lobbying, the United States recognized Morocco’s sovereignty over the disputed Western Sahara territory, which Morocco has occupied since 1975. The U.S. recognition, in exchange for Morocco normalizing relations with Israel, opens a new chapter in an issue that has long been static. And it has implications not only for Morocco and the Polisario Front—which represents the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), the government in exile that aims to govern Western Sahara—but also for those indirectly involved: Algeria, the United States and the European Union.
Read more from the source : Lawfare
Tags : Western Sahara, Morocco, Donald Trump, Israel,
Couscous, the Berber dish beloved across northern Africa’s Maghreb region and beyond, Wednesday joined the UN list of the world’s intangible cultural heritage. The countries that submitted the listing to UNESCO — Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia and Mauritania — may have their differences, but their common love of the grain staple runs deep. “Couscous, present at every social or cultural event, is at once ordinary and special,” their joint presentation argued. “Ordinary because of the frequency of its use in a family setting, and special because of the unifying and propitiatory role it plays at convivial community occasions at which food is shared.”
Read more from the source : The North African Journal
Tags : Maghreb, couscous, UNESCO,