IMF and World Bank annual meeting in quake-hit Marrakech likely to go ahead next month, At least 2,900 people have been killed and 5,500 injured in Morocco s worst earthquake for 120 years, state television reported late on 12 September as anger was growing over delays in getting rescue equipment to more remote areas in the country.
The monarchy has deftly marginalised Islamist parties through a mixture of intimidation and co-optation, The Parti de la Justice et du Développement (PJD) members of former Prime Minister Saad Eddine el Othmani s government suffered a string of policy humiliations as ministers aligned with King Mohammed VI (M6) s ruling Makhzen (establishment) reasserted their dominance of Moroccan politics a decade after political reforms in the wake of the Arab Spring demonstrations in 2011.
Using migrants to pressurise Spain underlines the Saharan conflict s central position in Palace thinking, Rabat s encouragement last month for a wave of migrants who, freed of Moroccan policing, promptly descended on the Spanish-ruled enclave of Ceuta, blew Saharan sands to a most sensitive gateway to the European Union. Its success in shaking a stick at Madrid after Polisario Front leader Brahim Ghali travelled to Spain (in an Algerian jet on an Algerian diplomatic passport) to be treated for severe coronavirus was underlined, as thousands of troops had to be deployed from the Spanish enclave s garrison.