France pledges $168m investment in Morocco-claimed W.Sahara
RABAT: The state-run French Development Agency (AFD) will invest $168-million in the largely Moroccan-controlled but disputed territory of Western Sahara, the agency's chief said Saturday.
'The AFD group will now invest in the southern regions and provide investments and financing,' AFD chief executive Remy Rioux said in a statement carried by official Moroccan news agency MAP during a visit to the territory.
Western Sahara, a mineral-rich former Spanish colony, is largely controlled by Morocco but has been claimed for decades by the pro-independence Polisario Front, which is backed by Algeria.
The United Nations considers Western Sahara a 'non-self-governing territory'.
A UN peacekeeping mission based there since 1991 has the stated aim of organising a referendum on the territory's future. But Rabat has repeatedly ruled out any vote where independence is an option, instead proposing an autonomy plan.
France's stance on Western Sahara has been ambiguous in recent years, often straining ties with Morocco.
But last year, French President Emmanuel Macron said Morocco's autonomy plan was the 'only basis' to resolve the conflict.
France's diplomatic turnabout had been awaited by Rabat, after the United States recognised Moroccan claims over Western Sahara in return for the kingdom normalising ties with Israel in 2020.
The shift drew criticism from Algiers, which cut diplomatic ties with Morocco in 2021.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New Straits Times
10 hours ago
- New Straits Times
Iran not convinced Israel will honour ceasefire, warns of retaliation
TEHRAN: Iran on Sunday said it was not convinced Israel would abide by a ceasefire that ended their 12-day war this week. The most serious escalation to date between the arch-foes erupted on June 13, when Israel launched a bombing campaign in Iran that killed top military commanders and scientists linked to its disputed nuclear programme. Israel said its aim was to keep the Islamic republic from developing a nuclear weapon – an ambition Tehran has consistently denied, insisting it has the right to develop nuclear power for civilian purposes like energy. The fighting derailed nuclear talks between Iran and the United States, a staunch ally of Israel's. "We did not start the war, but we have responded to the aggressor with all our power," Iran's armed forces chief of staff, Abdolrahim Mousavi, was quoted as saying by state television, referring to Israel. "We have serious doubts over the enemy's compliance with its commitments including the ceasefire, we are ready to respond with force" if attacked again, he added, six days into the ceasefire announced by US President Donald Trump. The United States joined Israel in its campaign during the war, carrying out strikes on three key facilities used for Iran's atomic programme. Trump has threatened further strikes should Iran enrich uranium to levels capable of manufacturing nuclear weapons. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Iran had enriched uranium to 60 per cent in 2021, well above the 3.67 per cent limit set by a 2015 agreement from which the United States unilaterally withdrew in 2018. To make a weapon, Iran would need to enrich uranium up to 90 per cent. Israel has maintained ambiguity about its own atomic arsenal, neither officially confirming nor denying it exists, but the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute has estimated it has 90 nuclear warheads. According to Iran's health ministry, at least 627 civilians were killed and 4,900 injured during the 12-day war with Israel. Retaliatory missile attacks by Iran on Israel killed 28 people, according to Israeli authorities. During the war, Iran arrested dozens of people it accused of spying for Israel, also saying it seized equipment including drones and weapons. Iran's parliament on Sunday voted to ban the unauthorised use of communications equipment, including tech billionaire Elon Musk's Starlink satellite internet service, according to the official news agency IRNA. An Israeli strike on Tehran's Evin prison during the war killed at least 71 people, Iran's judiciary said Sunday. The strike on Monday destroyed part of the administrative building at Evin, a large, heavily fortified complex in the north of Tehran, which rights groups say holds political prisoners and foreign nationals. According to judiciary spokesman Asghar Jahangir, the victims at Evin included administrative staff, guards, prisoners and visiting relatives as well as people living nearby. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said on Monday that detained French nationals Cecile Kohler and Jacques Paris, held at Evin for three years, were not believed to have been harmed by the Israeli strike, which he described as "unacceptable." On Tuesday, a day after the strike, the judiciary said that the Iranian prison authority had transferred inmates out of Evin prison, without specifying their number or identifying them.
New Straits Times
15 hours ago
- New Straits Times
UN bids to salvage global development summit after US boycott
SCORES of world leaders will be sweltering in the summer sun of southern Spain starting Monday at a once-a-decade United Nations development financing summit aimed at curbing global poverty, disease and the worst-case threats of climate change. Despite the scorching temperatures, though, a major chill looms over the event - the decision early this month by the United States, traditionally the world's largest aid giver and key finance provider, not to show up. UN countries want to close a US$4 trillion-a-year funding gap they now estimate prevents the developing world achieving the organisation's Sustainable Development Goals that range from cutting infant death rates to minimising global warming. UN Financing for Development summit starts from today. June 30 till July 3. Critics say the promises at the heart of the conference - called the "Seville Commitment" - are nowhere near bold enough. The measures, agreed by consensus after a year of tough negotiations, include tripling multilateral lending capacity, debt relief, a push to boost tax-to-GDP ratios to at least 15 per cent, and shifting special IMF money to countries that need it most. The run-up, however, has been marred by the US decision to withdraw over what it said was the crossing of a number of its red lines, including the push to triple development bank lending, change tax rules and the use of the term "gender" in summit wording. The European Union only joined the summit with reservations, particularly over how debt is discussed within the UN. Speaking to reporters this week, UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed described Washington's boycott as "regrettable", especially after its "catastrophic" recent aid cuts that she said had cost lives and livelihoods. Speaking alongside officials from summit host Spain and Zambia, which has helped organise it, she said the final outcome document agreed reflected both "ambition and realism" and that the UN would try to re-engage the US afterwards. Remy Rioux, chief executive officer of the French Development Agency, said Washington's withdrawal had not been a total surprise given Donald Trump's views. The hope is that agreements next week will allow bolder action at the UN climate talks in Brazil in November. "We will push for the new framework... (and) its operationalisation from Seville to Belem," he added, referring to the Brazilian city that will host COP30. Other measures to be announced include multilateral lenders automatically giving vulnerable countries the option to insert repayment break clauses into their loans in case of hurricane, drought or flood. Another buzz phrase will be a "Global SDR playbook" - a plan where the wealthiest countries rechannel the IMF's reserve-like Special Draw Rights they hold to the multilateral banks, who then leverage them as capital in order to lend more. Campaigners warn that it will fall far short of what is needed, especially as more than 130 countries now face critically high debt levels and many spend more on repayments than on health or education. Aid and support from rich countries, who themselves have rising debts, is dropping too. In March, the US slashed more than 80 per cent of programmes at its USAID agency following federal budget cuts spearheaded by billionaire Elon Musk. Britain, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden have all made cuts in recent years too. The OECD projects a 9-17 per cent drop in net official development assistance (ODA) in 2025, following a 9 per cent decline in 2024. It looks set to hit the poorest countries hardest: bilateral ODA to least developed countries and sub-Saharan Africa may fall by 13-25 per cent and 16-28 per cent respectively, the OECD estimates, and health funding could drop by up to 60 per cent from its 2022 peak. So what would be a good outcome in Seville, especially given the US pull-out? "We should make sure we are not backtracking at this point," said Orville Grey at the International Institute for Sustainable Development, referring to funding commitments. "We should at least remain stable."
New Straits Times
15 hours ago
- New Straits Times
Iran judiciary says Israeli strike on Tehran's Evin prison killed 71
TEHRAN: An Israeli strike on Tehran's Evin prison during this month's 12-day war killed at least 71 people, Iran's judiciary said Sunday, days after a ceasefire ended hostilities between the two arch-foes. The strike on Monday destroyed part of the administrative building at Evin, a large, heavily fortified complex in the north of Tehran, which rights groups say holds political prisoners and foreign nationals. "According to official figures, 71 people were killed in the attack on Evin prison," said judiciary spokesman Asghar Jahangir of the attack, part of the bombardment campaign Israel launched on June 13. According to Jahangir, the victims at Evin included administrative staff, guards, prisoners and visiting relatives as well as people living nearby. Images shared by the judiciary showed destroyed walls, collapsed ceilings, scattered debris, and broken surfaces across waiting areas at the facility. The judiciary said that Evin's medical centre and visiting rooms had been targeted. On Tuesday, a day after the strike, the judiciary said that the Iranian prison authority had transferred inmates out of Evin prison, without specifying their number or identifying them. The inmates at Evin have included Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi as well as several French nationals and other foreigners. — AFP
