*(This article originally appeared in Muftah on Sunday, June 9, 2013)Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan just can’t get a break these days. The beleaguered, but defiant PM did not let recent demonstrations in several parts of Turkey derail his plans for a North African tour early this past week. First stop in his Maghreb visit was Morocco, where he was received […]

Panic reigned supreme in the halls of Morocco’s government yesterday. All of the political forces of the kingdom were placed on high alert as news surfaced of a US proposal to expand the UN mission in the Western Sahara to include human rights monitoring in the region and the POISARIO-controlled Tindouf camps in Algeria. Leaders of major political parties an […]

This article appeared on the North Africa Post on March 24, 2013.Western Sahara was front and center in CNN’s latest edition of Amanpour, marking a rare instance in which the oft-overlooked and stalemated conflict has been treated as more than a peripheral issue in the Western media. Amanpour hosted and plugged a new documentary film on the Western Sahara th […]

** A version of this article was published on Muftah. The hostage crisis in Algeria is a violent reminder of the rapidly deteriorating security situation in the North Africa and the Sahel regions. On January 16th, 32 armed militants stormed the In Amenas gas complex in southeast Algeria, holding several hundred hostages in the process. After four days of sie […]

The Maghreb has long been a region forgotten, and detached from the rest of Middle East in US foreign policy making. The closest we came to hearing about the Maghreb or Sahel regions, albeit in passing, was during the third presidential debate between Romney and Obama. Recent events in the past few months have made it a necessity for the US to integrate the […]

Like many around the world I woke up today to the sad news of the death of Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, three of his staffers and ten Libyan security guards who battled to protect the US Consulate in Benghazi last night. The savage attack was reportedly in reaction to the leaked movie called "Innocence of Muslims" released in the US about the […]

*This article appeared in Muftah on September 10, 2012.In a recent interview for Al Jazeera English with Mark LeVine, Professor Stephen Zunes provides a scathing critique of Morocco as an occupying force in the Western Sahara. Zunes, a well-respected scholar of international relations, goes so far as to compare Morocco’s 1975 annexation of the Western Sahara […]

Horrific images have been surfacing from last night's Feb 20 protests in Casablanca, Rabat and El Jadida. Thousands took the streets demanding greater social justice and to condemn widespread corruption. The demonstrations were violently repressed by the police resulting in 14 injuries. This continues a state pattern of violence against peaceful protest […]

Libya may be on its way to buck the trend of Islamist electoral victory in post-Arab Spring. Reports suggest that the liberal, and secular-minded ex-PM Mahmoud Jibril may be leading  the elections of the National Congress. The 200-seat body will be a key transitional institution in the future of post-Gaddafi's Libya, as it will be entrusted with the tas […]

*This article is originally written for and appeared in Muftah today.While Morocco continues to be hailed as a model for democratic reform and an exception to the Arab tempest of change, several indictors point to the fossilized and increasingly repressive behavior of the state. The Moroccan government has longed reveled in a myopic and contradictory strateg […]