عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Arab World

Moroccan King: Education, Culture Key Components of EU-AU Partnership

Moroccan King Mohammed VI (MAP)
Moroccan King Mohammed VI (MAP)
TT
20
TT

Moroccan King: Education, Culture Key Components of EU-AU Partnership

Moroccan King Mohammed VI (MAP)
Moroccan King Mohammed VI (MAP)

Moroccan King Mohammed VI said that guaranteeing education and promoting culture are among key components of the partnership between the African Union and the European Union.

Others include accelerating the pace of vocational training, employing the youth and putting migration and mobility in order.

The common denominator between them all is the youths, in whom the two continents should invest to ensure they reach their maximum potentials.

His remarks were made in a speech read out by Morocco’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation and Moroccan Expatriates Nasser Bourita at the sixth EU-AU Summit, held on Feb. 17-18 in Brussels.

“These future-oriented objectives should inspire and inform our approach to the AU-EU partnership,” he stressed.

King Mohammed asserted that neither Africa nor Europe could achieve these goals on their own, noting that they share a common responsibility in this regard.

He said 94% of the world students could not have access to education during the pandemic due to school closures.

“We need to ensure the continuity of education, taking into account the new context of digital transformation in the education sector.”

This requirement is particularly crucial in Africa, he stressed, noting that 50% of its population is under the age of 20.

“Our schools, universities, and vocational training institutions need, just like our respective economies, a robust recovery to make up for the 1.8 trillion hours of no schooling,” Bourita read.

King Mohammed further pointed out that the pandemic has not spared the culture either, economically and access wise.

He underlined the importance of re-establishing cultural cooperation mechanisms to revive the sector, which is considered vital for bringing people together in Africa, Europe and between the two continents.

Commenting on the migration issue, the King said that the pandemic has shown that in terms of mobility, migrants do not have a harmful effect on the economy.

“On the contrary, they have a positive impact in their host country - where they are often essential workers - as well as in their country of origin.”

He called for approaching this issue not as a challenge but rather a major source of opportunities.

Most Viewed

 
Arab World

US Pulls Out of Two More Bases in Syria, Worrying Kurdish Forces

SDF forces in Syria. (AFP file)
SDF forces in Syria. (AFP file)
TT
20
TT

US Pulls Out of Two More Bases in Syria, Worrying Kurdish Forces

SDF forces in Syria. (AFP file)
SDF forces in Syria. (AFP file)

US forces have pulled out of two more bases in northeastern Syria, visiting Reuters reporters found, accelerating a troop drawdown that the commander of US-backed Syrian Kurdish forces said was allowing a resurgence of ISIS.

Reuters reporters who visited the two bases in the past week found them mostly deserted, both guarded by small contingents of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) - the Kurdish-led military group that Washington has backed in the fight against ISIS for a decade.

Cameras used on bases occupied by the US-led military coalition had been taken down, and razor wire on the outer perimeters had begun to sag.

A Kurdish politician who lives on one base said there were no longer US troops there. SDF guards at the second base said troops had left recently but declined to say when. The Pentagon declined to comment.

It is the first confirmation on the ground by reporters that the US has withdrawn from Al-Wazir and Tel Baydar bases in Hasaka province. It brings to at least four the number of bases in Syria US troops have left since President Donald Trump took office.

Trump’s administration said this month it will scale down its military presence in Syria to one base from eight in parts of northeastern Syria that the SDF controls. The New York Times reported in April that troops might be reduced from 2,000 to 500 in the drawdown.

The SDF did not respond to questions about the current number of troops and open US bases in northeastern Syria.

But SDF commander Mazloum Abdi, who spoke to Reuters at another US base, Al Shadadi, said the presence of a few hundred troops on one base would be "not enough" to contain the threat of ISIS.

"The threat of ISIS has significantly increased recently. But this is the US military’s plan. We’ve known about it for a long time ... and we’re working with them to make sure there are no gaps and we can maintain pressure on ISIS," he said.

Abdi spoke to Reuters on Friday, hours after Israel launched its air war on Iran. He declined to comment on how the new Israel-Iran war would affect Syria, saying simply that he hoped it would not spill over there and that he felt safe on a US base.

Hours after the interview, three Iranian-made missiles targeted the Al Shadadi base and were shot down by US defense systems, two SDF security sources said.

ISIS ACTIVE IN SYRIAN CITIES

ISIS ruled vast swathes of Iraq and Syria from 2014 to 2017 during Syria’s civil war, imposing a vision of religious rule under which it beheaded locals in city squares, sex-trafficked members of the Yazidi minority and executed foreign journalists and aid workers.

The group, from its strongholds in Raqqa in Syria and Mosul in Iraq, also launched deadly attacks in European and Middle Eastern countries.

A US-led military Coalition of more than 80 countries waged a yearslong campaign to defeat the group and end its territorial control, supporting Iraqi forces and the SDF.

But ISIS has been reinvigorated since the ouster of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad in December at the hands of separate opposition factions.

Abdi said ISIS cells had become active in several Syrian cities, including Damascus, and that a group of foreign extremists who once battled the Syrian regime had joined its ranks. He did not elaborate.

He said ISIS had seized weapons and ammunition from Syrian regime depots in the chaos after Assad's fall.

Several Kurdish officials told Reuters that ISIS had already begun moving more openly around US bases which had recently been shuttered, including near the cities of Deir Ezzor and Raqqa, once strongholds for the extremist group.

In areas the SDF controls east of the Euphrates River, ISIS has waged a series of attacks and killed at least 10 SDF fighters and security forces, Abdi said. Attacks included a roadside bomb targeting a convoy of oil tankers on a road near the US base where he gave the interview.