Israeli newspaper Times of Israel published an article on aid granted by Israelis to isolated villages in Morocco. The newspaper reports that many Amazighs «identify with the modern State of Israel and the Jews».
In a new attempt to help Morocco curb migration flows, Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Borrell said that his country has urged the EU to increase financial aid granted to Rabat. This request comes as the Kingdom said it has managed to decrease migrant arrivals in Spain.
Visiting Brussels, Spain’s Secretary of State for Migration Consuelo Rumi has urged the European executive to grant Morocco, before March, the 140 million euros.
On the 4th of January, the Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighborhood Policy announced that the EU has already granted Morocco €70 million to Morocco to address irregular migration. Visiting Morocco on Thursday, Federica Mogherini promised that the Kingdom will receive €110 million soon.
After the US House of Representatives passed a bill that treats Western Sahara as a «sovereign entity», pro-Polisario lobbyists in the Senate took the lead, stressing that they would endorse MPs’ will to exclude the Saharan provinces from economic assistance granted to the Kingdom.
The 2015 US Finance Act authorized USAID to contribute to development projects in the Moroccan-controlled Sahara. The 2019 one, which is being currently adopted, could be amended.
Authorities in Algeria and Mauritania have been imposing strict regulations on Sahrawi merchants and NGOs wishing to enter the Tindouf camps for humanitarian reasons.
The Polisario is intending to impose its own rules on Spanish associations that do not make use of caravans when sending aids to the inhabitants of the Tindouf camps.