Hajar Kharroubi

Why are tomatoes selling for nearly 18 dirhams per kilogram at some retail outlets? In Souss-Massa, the source of 75% of Morocco’s winter tomato supply, yields have dropped from 180-200 tons to 90-100 tons per hectare, according to Amine Amanatoullah, an early-season vegetable producer and exporter. Plant viruses, higher fuel costs and a long chain of intermediaries are adding to the pressure. Here is what is driving the increase.

As Russia vetoed the US-drafted Sahara resolution at the UN Security Council, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s aircraft stopped in Casablanca on both legs of his journey to the United States. They were merely refueling stops. But the contrast is striking nonetheless.

The American Jewish Committee sees Morocco as a model of interfaith understanding that could be replicated around the world. During a visit to Casablanca, Jason Isaacson, the organization’s Chief Policy and Political Affairs Officer, spoke to Le360 about the foundations of a centuries-old relationship and the values of coexistence championed by the Kingdom.

Nasser Bourita appeared on a special program broadcast by 2M on Saturday, October 31, to discuss the end of the mandate of the MINURSO. The minister of Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation and Moroccan Expatriates said Russia’s veto had come as “no surprise” to Morocco, which had anticipated the move. He presented the situation as an opportunity to change rules inherited from the past and reaffirmed the Kingdom’s commitment to the ceasefire. Below is the full transcript of his remarks.

By blocking the US-drafted resolution on the Sahara, Moscow hoped to extend MINURSO’s mandate unchanged. It achieved precisely the opposite. Without a resolution, the mission loses its mandate and, according to the Royal Office statement, will leave Morocco’s southern provinces “in the coming days”. Russia’s veto has rid Morocco of a mission that had come to serve only its adversaries. Spasibo, Moskva!

Morocco’s UN ambassador Omar Hilale hit back sharply at his Algerian counterpart, Amar Bendjama, during a Security Council debate on the Sahara. Accusing Algiers of delivering an “indictment” of the United Nations, Hilale took apart Algeria’s arguments point by point, dismissing its legal reasoning as hollow.

By vetoing the US-drafted resolution, Russia blocked a text backed by 11 of the Security Council’s 15 members. MINURSO’s mandate expires on October 31. The deadlock has opened a period of uncertainty, but none of the possible outcomes would take the dispute back to where Algiers wants it.

Morocco has confirmed 30 cases of diphtheria, particularly in the Casablanca-Settat and Rabat-Salé-Kénitra regions, with three deaths recorded. Jaouad Hammou, head of the Communicable Diseases Division at the Health Ministry, told Le360 that no outbreak clusters have been detected.

In the autumn of 1974, two Concorde prototypes arrived in succession at Nouaceur airfield. A 3,700-meter runway, clear skies over the Atlantic, a mild climate... Morocco became an open-air laboratory for the Anglo-French supersonic airliner.