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Tag: Western Sahara

  • Algerian Imams asked to give diatribes against Morocco instead of Friday sermons

    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,

  • The Western Sahara Conflict is Upended By a Trump Tweet

    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,

  • Western Sahara: Algeria Uses Friday Prayer Sermon to Attack Morocco

    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,

  • How the Western Sahara Became the Key to North Africa

    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, 

  • Western Sahara: Morocco Cracks Down on Activists

    (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,

  • James Baker blasts U.S. recognition of Moroccan claims to Western Sahara

    Former Secretary of State James Baker blasted the Trump administration for recognizing Western Sahara as Moroccan territory, writing in a Thursday op-ed the move “was an astounding retreat from the principles of international law and diplomacy”. “The United States has unwisely abandoned its principles for something that will make no difference to the position of the international community and to the resolution of the conflict,” Baker wrote in a Washington Post op-ed.

    Read more from the source : Politico.com

     

     

     

     

    Tags : Western Sahara, James Baker,

  • What’s Next for the Western Sahara Conflict?

    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,

  • In struggles for West Sahara and West Bank, thorny parallels may loom for Israel

    Sahrawi children from Western Sahara sit in their classroom in the Smara refugee camp near Tindouf, south-western Algeria, March 4, 2016. (AP/ Toukik Doudou). They are both rugged regions claimed by an indigenous population but ruled by a UN member state in a seemingly neverending struggle. They have both seen periods of violent fighting and are riven by a physical barrier built for security. They are both the subject of countless UN resolutions, international condemnations, and US-brokered peace plans. They are both places where US President Donald Trump’s administration has upended decades of consensus by favoring the ruling party’s claims. Not to mention, they both have “west” in their names.

    Read more from the source : The Times of Israel

     

     

     

     

    Tags : Israel, Palestine, Western Sahara,

  • Morocco and Western Sahara – Military Posturing and Diplomatic Offensives

    Whilst there has been no direct military confrontation between the Polisario Front and Morocco regarding the future of Western Sahara for a number of years, both Morocco and their opponent, the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) have been deploying diplomatic overtures to sway opinion in their favour across the African continent and beyond. The intractable conflict between Morocco and the Polisario Front, the ruling party of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), stands poised to erupt back into open hostilities after recent statements made by the Front.

    Read more from the source : Global Risks Insights

     

     

     

     

    Tags : Western Sahara, Morocco, Polisario Front,

  • The Israel-Morocco peace deal is roiling Western Sahara

    Israel’s formal ties with the Arab world now extend from the United Arab Emirates (uae) in the east to Morocco in the west. On December 10th President Donald Trump announced the latest breakthrough in his diplomatic push on behalf of the Jewish state. Morocco, the Arab world’s oldest monarchy, will become the fourth Arab state in as many months to establish diplomatic relations with Israel (following the uae, Bahrain and Sudan).

    Read more from the source : The Economist

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Tags : Morocco, Israel, Western Sahara, Donald Trump,