Two Moroccan Opposition Parties Call for Confronting ‘Government Dominance’

Idris Lachkar and Nabil Benabdallah during the signing of the joint political statement. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Idris Lachkar and Nabil Benabdallah during the signing of the joint political statement. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
TT
20

Two Moroccan Opposition Parties Call for Confronting ‘Government Dominance’

Idris Lachkar and Nabil Benabdallah during the signing of the joint political statement. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Idris Lachkar and Nabil Benabdallah during the signing of the joint political statement. (Asharq Al-Awsat)

Two Moroccan opposition parties, the Socialist Union of Popular Forces and the Party of Progress and Socialism, have called for confronting “the numerical dominance of the government”.

In a joint statement issued on Friday, they urged the formation of a national front and the emergence of a civilian movement.

The statement was issued following a meeting on Friday between Idris Lachkar, General Secretary of the Socialist Union of Popular Forces, and Nabil Benabdallah, General Secretary of the Party of Progress and Socialism in Rabat.

A joint committee was established for coordination between both parties.

Moreover, the political bureaus of these parties held a consultive meeting.

The institutions have lost the necessary balance to achieve democracy and development following the 2021 elections that were overwhelmed by corrupt practices, according to the statement.

The parties stressed that the national front should be tasked with inserting a new spirit into politics in order to restore the status of political and partisan activity, reconcile citizens with public affairs, restore confidence in political, institutional, and electoral work, and provide decent conditions for political competence and intact elections.

They highlighted that the current economic and social challenges are an opportunity to carry out reforms, further expressing willingness to perform their institutional and public tasks in a committed and patriotic manner in all sectors.



Israeli Likud Party Ministers Urge Netanyahu to Annex West Bank

Israeli soldiers in Tubas in the north of the occupied West Bank on September 11, 2024. (AFP)
Israeli soldiers in Tubas in the north of the occupied West Bank on September 11, 2024. (AFP)
TT
20

Israeli Likud Party Ministers Urge Netanyahu to Annex West Bank

Israeli soldiers in Tubas in the north of the occupied West Bank on September 11, 2024. (AFP)
Israeli soldiers in Tubas in the north of the occupied West Bank on September 11, 2024. (AFP)

Cabinet ministers in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party called on Wednesday for Israel to annex the Israeli-occupied West Bank before the Knesset recesses at the end of the month.

They issued a petition ahead of Netanyahu's meeting next week with US President Donald Trump, where discussions are expected to center on a potential 60-day Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal with Hamas.

The petition was signed by 15 cabinet ministers and Amir Ohana, speaker of the Knesset, Israel's parliament.

There was no immediate response from the prime minister's office. Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, long a confidant of Netanyahu, did not sign the petition. He has been in Washington since Monday for talks on Iran and Gaza.

"We ministers and members of Knesset call for applying Israeli sovereignty and law immediately on Judea and Samaria," they wrote, using the biblical names for the West Bank captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war.

Their petition cited Israel's recent achievements against both Iran and Iran's allies and the opportunity afforded by the strategic partnership with the US and support of Trump.

It said the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on Israel demonstrated that the concept of Jewish settlement blocs alongside the establishment of a Palestinian state poses an existential threat to Israel.

"The task must be completed, the existential threat removed from within, and another massacre in the heart of the country must be prevented," the petition stated.

Most countries regard Jewish settlements in the West Bank, many of which cut off Palestinian communities from one another, as a violation of international law.

With each advance of Israeli settlements and roads, the West Bank becomes more fractured, further undermining prospects for a contiguous land on which Palestinians could build a sovereign state long envisaged in Middle East peacemaking.

Israel's pro-settler politicians have been emboldened by the return to the White House of Trump, who has proposed Palestinians leave Gaza, a suggestion widely condemned across the Middle East and beyond.