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POWER BROKERS

MAGHREB CONFIDENTIAL n°1005 - 09/02/2012
MOROCCO
Will palace wield stick carefully at Taza?

Mohamed VI is facing a new kind of dilemma: how to deal with an uprising in the city of Taza that came to a head on Feb. 3-4 without appearing to curb the “political headway” the palace claims to have made since the legislative elections in November and the formation of a government dominated by the moderate Islamic PJD party? (...) [566 words] [$11,2]

MAGHREB CONFIDENTIAL n°1005 - 09/02/2012
FRANCE/MOROCCO
Lahlimi sets tone for Hollande in Rabat

If the French Socialist Party’s candidate for the forthcoming election isn’t travelling to Morocco, the country may well come to him. (...) [177 words] [$7]

MAGHREB CONFIDENTIAL n°1005 - 09/02/2012
SAUDI ARABIA/TUNISIA
Jebali off to Riyadh to counter Ben Ali

Hamadi Jebali will head for Saudi Arabia when he makes his first visit to the Gulf. The prime minister indeed intends to shortly drop in on Riyadh at the invitation of king Abdallah. (...) [166 words] [$7]

MAGHREB CONFIDENTIAL n°1005 - 09/02/2012
LIBYA
Solid backing for new liberal party

Foreign minister Achour Ben Khayal and the former spokesman for the National Transition Council (NTC), Mahmoud Shammon, who now runs Libya TV, are thinking of joining forces before Libya’s next election on June 23. (...) [162 words] [$7]

MAGHREB CONFIDENTIAL n°1004 - 02/02/2012
MOROCCO
CEN-SAD, Rabat’s secret weapon in Sahel

Dormant since the death of its founder and principal supporter Muammar Gaddafi, the Community of Sahel-Saharan States (CEN-SAD) has attracted the keen interest of Morocco recently. Rabat wants to revive the organisation, established in Tripoli in 1998, and take it in hand in order to counter Algeria’s predominant influence in the troubled region. (...) [522 words] [$11,2]

MAGHREB CONFIDENTIAL n°1004 - 02/02/2012
LIBYA
NTC’s “too Qatari” spymaster out

Barely a week after the appointment of Salem Al Hassi as head of Libya’s new external intelligence service, the National Transitional Council (NCT) has been obliged to replace him. (...) [181 words] [$7]

MAGHREB CONFIDENTIAL n°1004 - 02/02/2012
TUNISIA
Hamadi Jebali, Swiss rep

Tunisia’s Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali, who arrived at the World Economic Forum in Davos on the evening of January 26 on board a small aircraft provided by Nouvelair, had a long exchange with the U. (...) [159 words] [$7]

MAGHREB CONFIDENTIAL n°1004 - 02/02/2012
TUNISIA
AFL-CIO-UGTT make odd couple

The American Federation of Labour - Congress of Industrial Organisations (AFL-CIO), the principal workers’ federation in the U.S., has planted a flag in Tunis’ chic suburb of La Marsa, where blue collars are in distinctly short supply. (...) [165 words] [$7]

MAGHREB CONFIDENTIAL n°1003 - 26/01/2012
LIBYA
Can Abdeljalil hold on until June?

The National Transition Council is going through a bad patch. It is feeling increasingly isolated and a flurry of sit-ins by students in Benghazi, Tripoli and Misurata has begun to seriously hamper its actions. (...) [236 words] [$7]

MAGHREB CONFIDENTIAL n°1003 - 26/01/2012
LIBYA
Fresh mayhem undermines Al Keeb

Cases of murder and kidnapping in recent days have undermined the authority of prime minister Abdel Rahim El Keeb’s government, which is also grapping with the issues of frozen assets (see Page 1) and the treatment of those wounded in the war. (...) [129 words] [$7]

MAGHREB CONFIDENTIAL n°1003 - 26/01/2012
TUNISIA
M’Barek, Marzouki’s Internet envoy

Elected an overseas member of Tunisia’s parliament as representative of the “Americas” constituency, 31-year-old Mabrouka M’Barek, who stood under the colors of CPR (Congres pour la Republique) would like to be president Moncef Marzouki’s “ambassador” to Internet giants. (...) [146 words] [$7]

MAGHREB CONFIDENTIAL n°1002 - 19/01/2012
MOROCCO
Fihri's mark still on foreign ministry

Will the lone Islamic figure to be handed a key portfolio in the new Moroccan government, foreign minister Saad Eddine El Othmani, be given free rein by the royal palace?No sooner had El Othmani been named than he sought to display his independence by naming Ali Achour as his chief of staff. (...) [504 words] [$11,2]

MAGHREB CONFIDENTIAL n°1002 - 19/01/2012
MOROCCO
Sijilmass-Akherbach Duel for UPM job

King Mohamed VI’s circle in Rabat is hard at work trying to choose a successor to the secretary-general of the Union for the Mediterranean (UPM) to replace Youssef Amrani, who’s been assigned to keeping an eye on Morocco’s new foreign minister, Saad Eddine El Othmani (see here). (...) [183 words] [$7]

MAGHREB CONFIDENTIAL n°1002 - 19/01/2012
ALGERIA/MALI
Tuaregs take up the fight

The security situation took a sudden turn for the worse in Mali this week while, across the border in Algeria, legislators from the southern part of the country were urging Algiers to enlist Tuareg in the ranks of the Armee Nationale Populaire (ANP) to underpin the anti-terrorist fight in the Sahel. (...) [181 words] [$7]

MAGHREB CONFIDENTIAL n°1002 - 19/01/2012
EGYPT/LIBYA
Cairo lecturing the Libyans again

During a trip to Tripoli on Jan. 16, the chief of Egypt’s Supreme Armed Forces Council, marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantaoui, endeavored to set bilateral relations on a new course - and lay down a few conditions in the process. (...) [149 words] [$7]

MAGHREB CONFIDENTIAL n°1001 - 12/01/2012
ALGERIA
Bust-Up among AQIM chiefs

Some mystery surrounds the creation of a Mouvement pour l’Unicite et le Jihad en Afrique de l’Ouest (MUJAO) which claimed the kidnapping of three Westerners in a Polisario camp near Tindouf in Algeria on Oct. 23. Maghreb Confidential has some insight into it. (...) [538 words] [$11,2]

MAGHREB CONFIDENTIAL n°1001 - 12/01/2012
NORTH AFRICA/FRANCE
Sarkozy appoints fresh envoys

A lot of diplomatic shuffling is likely to take place in coming weeks in French embassies in North Africa. The ambassador to Algeria, Xavier Driencourt, will leave his post in coming months, according to our sources. (...) [174 words] [$7]

MAGHREB CONFIDENTIAL n°1001 - 12/01/2012
MOROCCO
Draiss or Laenser: who's the boss?

Just appointed the junior interior minister, Charki Draiss, former boss of the intelligence agency Direction Generale de la Surete Nationale (DGSN), will decidedly be the man to watch in the new Benkirane government. (...) [144 words] [$7]

MAGHREB CONFIDENTIAL n°1001 - 12/01/2012
MOROCCO/LIBYA
Morocco a rear base for Gaddafi forces?

Colonel Ahmed Bani, the military spokesman for Libya’s NTC, is currently in Morocco, officially to visit wounded from the war but unofficially to discuss the question of former Gaddafi forces who’ve taken refuge in the kingdom and stir concern in Tripoli. (...) [177 words] [$7]

MAGHREB CONFIDENTIAL n°1000 - 05/01/2012
ALGERIA
“Special” Arab Spring budget this year

Algeria’s largesse will know few limits in 2012. The budget for the new year, confirmed by president Abdelaziz Bouteflika, breaks the piggy bank of many government departments. The leadership’s aim is to counter potential unrest by showing people that Algeria’s petrodinars are being wisely spent. (...) [546 words] [$11,2]

MAGHREB CONFIDENTIAL n°1000 - 05/01/2012
TUNISIA
Reprieve for central bank chief Nabli

As Maghreb Confidential felt might be the case, the new government headed by Hamadi Jebali has decided to keep - at least for now - Mustapha Kamel Nabli in his post as head of Banque Centrale de Tunisie (BCT). (...) [165 words] [$7]

MAGHREB CONFIDENTIAL n°1000 - 05/01/2012
AFRICA/LIBYA
AU to unfreeze Libya’s African assets?

A partial freeze is still in force on funds of the Libyan Investment Authority (LIA) in Africa even though the European Council released the assets of Libya’s Central Bank and the Libyan Foreign Bank (LFB) on Dec. (...) [170 words] [$7]

MAGHREB CONFIDENTIAL n°1000 - 05/01/2012
LIBYA
Sharp setback for Tarhouni

New electoral regulations announced by the National Transition Council (NTC) on Jan. 1 muddy the political waters in Libya. Apart from banning former Gaddafi supporters from public life, it also throws up a roadblock in front of Libyans holding dual nationality, those who lived in exile and other “expatriates. (...) [152 words] [$7]

MCE n°1005 - 09/02/2012
TUNISIA

Ben Ali’s imam returns - After months of silence, Kamel Omrane, has edged his way back in (...)

[163 words] [$2,1]

MCE n°1005 - 09/02/2012
MOROCCO

Pardons were bitter sweet for Ramid - Justice minister Mustapha Ramid, who belongs to the Islamic PJD (...)

[120 words] [$2,1]

MCE n°1005 - 09/02/2012
LIBYA

NTC “neutral”at Tawergha - The Al Keeb government and the National Transition Council haven (...)

[76 words] [$2,1]

MCE n°1004 - 02/02/2012
TUNISIA/LIBYA

Mondher Rezgui - Tunisian political scientist Mondher Rezgui has a new day job. (...)

[102 words] [$2,1]

MCE n°1004 - 02/02/2012
ALGERIA/LIBYA

Aïcha Gaddafi - Muammar Gaddafi’s daughter Aïcha Gaddafi is understood to have l (...)

[172 words] [$2,1]

MCE n°1004 - 02/02/2012
TUNISIA

Martine Gambard - The secretary of the French foreign ministry in charge of emerge (...)

[58 words] [$2,1]

MCE n°1003 - 26/01/2012
MOROCCO

Dominique Strauss-Kahn - Regularly taking "refuge" in his beautiful home in Marrakech sin (...)

[119 words] [$2,1]

MCE n°1003 - 26/01/2012
TUNISIA

Mustapha Ben Jaafar - While president Moncef Marzouki seems happy withy the “new diplo (...)

[84 words] [$2,1]

MCE n°1003 - 26/01/2012
EUROPEAN UNION/MOROCCO

Stefan Fule - In travelling to Morocco last week, the European commissioner fo (...)

[138 words] [$2,1]

MCE n°1002 - 19/01/2012
LIBYA/MALI

Mohamed ag Najem - Within the ranks of Tuareg rebels from the Mouvement National po (...)

[193 words] [$2,1]

MCE n°1002 - 19/01/2012
MOROCCO

Abbas El Fassi - Former Moroccan prime minister Abbas El Fassi won’t stand for a (...)

[84 words] [$2,1]

MCE n°1002 - 19/01/2012
EGYPT/LIBYA

Ismail El Nagdi - The chief of Egypt's Industrial Development Authority, Ismail El (...)

[98 words] [$2,1]

MCE n°1001 - 12/01/2012
LIBYA

Ahmed Kaddafedam - Since taking up exile in Cairo, Ahmed Kaddafedam hasn’t been exa (...)

[102 words] [$2,1]

MCE n°1001 - 12/01/2012
ALGERIA

Mouloud Hamrouche - The idea of former prime minister Mouloud Hamrouche succeeding p (...)

[106 words] [$2,1]

MCE n°1001 - 12/01/2012
ALGERIA

Athman Tartag - The appointment of general Athman Tartag as head of the domestic (...)

[142 words] [$2,1]

MCE n°1000 - 05/01/2012
LIBYA

Abdel Rahim Al Keeb - Libya’s new prime minister, Abdel Rahim Al Keeb, is having a rou (...)

[149 words] [$2,1]

MCE n°1000 - 05/01/2012
LIBYA

Youssef Al Mangoush - The appointment of Youssef Al Mangoush as new Libyan chief-of-st (...)

[129 words] [$2,1]

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Africa Intelligence | West Africa Newsletter | The Indian Ocean Newsletter | Maghreb Confidential | Africa Energy Intelligence | Africa Mining Intelligence | Top African Leaders | Africa Business Intelligence | African Government & Political News | Intelligence Online

Africa Intelligence | West Africa Newsletter | The Indian Ocean Newsletter | Maghreb Confidential |
Africa Energy Intelligence | Africa Mining Intelligence | Top African Leaders |
Africa Business Intelligence | African Government & Political News | Intelligence Online