Vol 57 No 21 | MOROCCO Premier Benkirane is back 21st October 2016 The Islamist PJD won the most votes in this month's elections but it faces some hard bargaining to form another coalition It should have been a dramatic general election on 7 October, pitting the Islamist-led government's record of social conservatism and economic stagnation against a Westernised liberal and managerial...
Vol 57 No 8 | MOROCCOWESTERN SAHARA Rabat's Cold War manoeuvre 15th April 2016 The kingdom is desperate to roll back a series of diplomatic setbacks over the Western Sahara and has the UN in its sights Last month's visit to Moscow by King Mohammed VI had echoes of the political manoeuvres favoured by his late father, King Hassan II, who liked to play both...
Vol 56 No 10 | MOROCCO Outward bound 15th May 2015 Morocco has been busy buying influence in Washington, extending it in Francophone Africa and tightening its grip on Western Sahara Officials and business leaders are celebrating their successful but costly campaign to outflank regional rival Algeria in the long dispute over Western Sahara. Morocco has also bested Algeria's...
Vol 56 No 10 | MOROCCO Sufism’s soft power 15th May 2015 The monarch uses the country’s long Sufi tradition to help its foreign policy and neutralise its enemies The effort by King Mohammed VI to extend Moroccan influence in West Africa depends in part on the country's historic Sufi ties with turuq (brotherhoods or orders) across...
Vol 56 No 6 | MOROCCO Concern for King and court 13th March 2015 Plunging oil prices and rapprochement with France make for good news, but there are stirrings behind the headlines After a period of personal trauma following the death in December of his friend and right-hand man, Minister of State Abdellah Baha, Prime Minister Abdelilah Benkirane's face is...
Vol 56 No 2 | MOROCCOWESTERN SAHARABRITAIN You say Morocco 23rd January 2015 The British personal injury and negligence law firm Leigh Day is preparing judicial review proceedings against Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) over claims that Morocco is passing...
Vol 55 No 16 | MOROCCO Not waving but drifting 8th August 2014 Some see the kingdom as a star in this troubled region but a political vacuum at the top and a lack of ideas are holding it back Prescient members of the ruling class are feeling uneasy, even in Casablanca's smartest restaurants and on its widest boulevards, thronged by designer shops and choked with luxury cars....
Vol 55 No 7 | MOROCCOWESTERN SAHARANORWAY Kill the drill 4th April 2014 The Norwegian-based company Aker Solutions has decided to stop providing oil services to its drilling rig in disputed waters off Western Sahara after Africa Confidential publicised the case...
Vol 55 No 6 | MOROCCOWESTERN SAHARANORWAY Testing the offshore limits 21st March 2014 Sahrawi officials are again trying to get the UN to intervene with oil companies drilling in disputed offshore areas A legal battle may be brewing between the Polisario Front, which since 1973 has aspired to rule Western Sahara, and Norwegian oil services company Aker Solutions over offshore...
Vol 55 No 6 | MOROCCOWESTERN SAHARAUNITED STATES Senate for Morocco 21st March 2014 About a month after the United States Senate passed a bill that, very unusually, affects the disputed territory of Western Sahara, Washington lobbyists Gray Global Advisors revealed they...