Morocco Archives - Arab Digest

While public dissent over normalisation is met with court sentences and dispersal, the Marrakech Air Show showcases the seamless expansion of Israel and Morocco’s military-industrial partnership.

Managing dissent: Morocco, Israel and the Palestine Question

Summary: with American backing Morocco and Israel continue to deepen their diplomatic and business ties while overriding the support for Palestine and the Palestinian people of the vast majority of Moroccans.

October 9, 2026

King Mohammed VI appointed Fatima Ezzahra El Mansouri as Morocco’s head of government, making her the first woman to lead the North African kingdom’s Cabinet.

The Moroccan election: plus ça change

Summary: low turnout, blank ballots and the resurgence of an Islamist party are signs that all is not well in Morocco even as the ruling elite retains its hold.

October 2, 2026

Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune confronts UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan at the 2024 G7 Summit in Bari. Tebboune's gesture came months after he publicly accused Abu Dhabi of funding regional conflicts, a rift that has now culminated in Algeria severing diplomatic ties.

Algeria-UAE rupture shows a region rearranging its alliances

Summary: Algeria’s severing of diplomatic relations with the UAE is a statement that the North African country has lost patience with what it sees as Abu Dhabi’s meddling in its neighbourhood.

September 18, 2026

Thousands of migrants stormed into Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta from Morocco in just a matter of hours, overwhelming border police as people swam around breakwaters, scaled border fences, and rushed through entry points.

Morocco needs a new economic growth model

Summary: despite promises to be the ‘King of the Poor,’ Morocco’s Mohammed VI has embraced an economic model that is impoverishing a majority, particularly young Moroccans, whilst further enriching a privileged elite.

September 7, 2026

The UAE’s Extradition Machine: How African Warrants Are Testing Dubai’s Global Image

Summary: for years, Dubai was known as a place where fugitives could disappear behind the city’s wealth, skyscrapers and international connections. Increasingly, it is becoming the opposite: a place where foreign governments can have people arrested and sent home.

September 4, 2026

President Abdelmadjid Tebboune casts his ballot amid a record 78% voter abstention, highlighting deep public disillusionment with Algeria’s military-backed ruling elite.

Algeria Loses its Way

Summary: a record low turnout in Algeria’s recent election is a reflection of how the North African state has failed its citizens while benefitting a select elite through a crony capitalist system and a stagnant status quo backed by the military.

July 27, 2026

Saudi And Soccer: Time For Second Thoughts

Summary: although the expansion of this year’s World Cup finals to 48 countries proved to be a success, advantages specific to its three host nations simply do not apply to Saudi Arabia’s solo hosting of the 2034 tournament even if FIFA rejects proposals to expand again to 64 participants.

July 23, 2026

On June 26, 2026, a Tunis court sentenced prominent human rights defender Sihem Bensedrine to 25 years in prison and a heavy fine, in a politically motivated escalation of Tunisia's ongoing crackdown on dissent.

Tunisia’s economic mirage

Summary: stock exchange exuberance belies the dire straits of the Tunisian economy.

July 6, 2026

Trump tosses a Hail Mary pass with the Abraham Accords

Summary: as uncertainty escalates over just what Donald Trump is hoping to achieve with an Iran peace deal his efforts to bring more Muslim nations into the Abraham Accords fold has already backfired badly.

May 28, 2026

Citizenship stripping in the Gulf

Summary: citizenship stripping has become a weapon of choice for authoritarian Gulf rulers feeling threatened by fallout from the Iran war.

May 13, 2026

Tomatoes on sale in an EDEKA supermarket in Berlin labelled as having been packaged in Agadir, Morocco, when the GLOBALG.A.P. certification GGN code 4063061817693 shows they in fact come from Dakhla, in occupied Western Sahara, September 2025 [photo credit: Western Sahara Resource Watch]

Europe cannot escape its own laws on Western Sahara

Summary: for more than a decade, the European Union has found itself in a bind when it comes to its relations with Morocco, caught between political transactionalism and legal imperatives. At the centre of this lies the question of Western Sahara which Rabat has made a key factor in its external engagement.

February 24, 2026

Algeria’s gas potential: critical reforms needed

Summary: although there is more European demand for Algerian gas, exports to Europe have declined in recent years. The key issue is whether its state-owned oil and gas company, Sonatrach, will be able to increase both production and exports.

February 13, 2026

Morocco

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