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Morocco Tries to Contain Pandemic by Imposing Strict Measures

Morocco imposes strict measures to contain the coronavirus outbreak. MAP
Morocco imposes strict measures to contain the coronavirus outbreak. MAP
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Morocco Tries to Contain Pandemic by Imposing Strict Measures

Morocco imposes strict measures to contain the coronavirus outbreak. MAP
Morocco imposes strict measures to contain the coronavirus outbreak. MAP

Morocco’s Prime Minister Saad-Eddine El Othmani said his government is taking all responsibility for managing the coronavirus pandemic and continues to assess the spread of the COVID-19 disease on a weekly basis or more.

In press statements on Tuesday, Othmani said some new decisions have been made to deal rapidly with new infections.

The government aims at reducing the number of infections by imposing quick measures, he affirmed, noting that any delay could have heavy consequences.

“All countries in the work often resort to strict decisions when it comes to the pandemic.”

“There isn’t any country or government in the world that wishes to close its economy or limit the movement of its citizens,” the PM said.

The Health Ministry announced on Tuesday a new record number of recoveries from COVID-19 amounting to 3,426 in the past 24 hours, raising the tally to 84,158 recoveries.

It also recorded 1,376 new cases, bringing the country’s tally to 103,119 since the first case was reported on March 2.

The ministry recorded 25 new deaths, increasing the death toll to 1,855, and saying the mortality rate remains at 1.8 percent.

The new cases were distributed as follows: Casablanca (495), Rabat-Sale-Kenitra (296), Beni Mellal-Khenifra (88), Marrakech-Safi region (86), Souss-Massa (84) and Tangier-Tetouan-al Hoceima (79).

Morocco’s cumulative infection rate during the past 24 hours has become 284 infections per 100,000 people, and the infection index is 3.8 per 100,000 people.

Moroccan health authorities excluded 20,085 suspected COVID-19 cases.

A total of approximately 2,307,457 suspected COVID-19 carriers have tested negative for the virus so far.

The number of active cases currently receiving treatment is 17,106, or 47.1 cases per 100,000 people.

Morocco counts 300 patients with severe symptoms, including 41 on ventilators.

In other news, the Pasteur Institute of Morocco (IPM) announced on Monday that it will continue to perform PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) tests.

In accordance with the Ministry of Health's anti-coronavirus strategy, the IPM has been making these tests at the reference laboratory for emerging and dangerous viruses at the rate of some 2,000 tests per day since the pandemic’s outbreak in the Kingdom, it said in a statement.

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Arab World

Arrest Warrant Issued against Iraq’s Maysan Provincial Chairman for Refusing to Shut Crossing with Iran

Maysan Provincial Council Chairman Mustafa Duair al-Muhammadawi. (Social media)
Maysan Provincial Council Chairman Mustafa Duair al-Muhammadawi. (Social media)
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Arrest Warrant Issued against Iraq’s Maysan Provincial Chairman for Refusing to Shut Crossing with Iran

Maysan Provincial Council Chairman Mustafa Duair al-Muhammadawi. (Social media)
Maysan Provincial Council Chairman Mustafa Duair al-Muhammadawi. (Social media)

An Iraqi court issued an arrest warrant for Maysan Provincial Council Chairman Mustafa Duair al-Muhammadawi over his refusal to close the al-Sheeb border crossing with Iran.

The Iraqi News Agency (INA) reported on Monday that the Third Al-Karkh Investigation Court issued the warrant against the council chief in accordance with the Penal Code.

A court document showed that the warrant stems from a complaint filed by the Office of the Prime Minister, Ali al-Zaidi, following statements by al-Muhammadawi threatening civil disobedience and roadblocks, alongside a three-day ultimatum for the government to reopen the border crossing.

Al-Zaidi's office had on Sunday ordered a probe into the chairman’s statements that had been deemed as “harmful”. In a statement, it stressed that the move underscores the need to respect the law.

The arrest warrant was issued in accordance with the provisions of "Article 224 - Second Section" of the "amended Iraqi Penal Code No. 111 of 1969," which carries a penalty of up to "life imprisonment; a punishment applied to anyone who resorts to violence, threats, or any other illegal means against the head of state or whoever acts in his place."

A member of the pro-Iran Asaib Ahl al-Haq faction, al-Muhammadawi had given the government until Thursday to reopen the crossing.

During a press conference at the crossing, he threatened to "declare civil disobedience and block all roads linking Maysan to other Iraqi cities if the demand to open the crossing is not met."

He also threatened to "secede the Maysan governorate from Iraq if its demands are not fulfilled and the movement of trade and passengers is not restored."

He said that the technical justifications cited by the government for the closure "inflicted severe harm on the governorate's residents, drove up the prices of goods and construction materials, crippled commercial activity, and disrupted travel for medical patients."

Dozens of truck drivers in Maysan staged a protest on Sunday against the closure of the crossing. Al-Muhammadawi also took part.

Baghdad decided last Tuesday to close the Sheeb crossing until further notice. Government spokesperson Haider Al-Aboudi said the decision stemmed from an inability to complete the technical, technological, and developmental requirements necessary to operate the facility.

However, the Prime Minister's Advisor for Tribal and Marsh Affairs, Abdul Amir Al-Taiban, said the closure was due to the smuggling of narcotics and counterfeit currency from Iran.

The Iranian Embassy in Iraq slammed his remarks as "false allegations" and demanded that relevant Iraqi authorities take a stand against statements it claimed harm bilateral relations.

Arab World

Yemen’s Ibb Becomes Houthis’ Main Source for Recruits

Houthi supporters during a rally in Sanaa. (EPA)
Houthi supporters during a rally in Sanaa. (EPA)
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Yemen’s Ibb Becomes Houthis’ Main Source for Recruits

Houthi supporters during a rally in Sanaa. (EPA)
Houthi supporters during a rally in Sanaa. (EPA)

The terrorist Houthi militia is depleting the population in Yemen's Ibb governorate by thrusting them onto the Taiz fronts, while expanding its use of local military sites and mountain ridges as ballistic missile launchpads, deepening the risks facing residents.

Local sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that the group has dispatched new military reinforcements from Ibb toward the Taiz fronts for the third time in less than a month. This reflects its ongoing reliance on recruiting the residents to offset human losses and replenish frontlines with new fighters as it faces mounting difficulties in mobilizing more residents and tribes across its territories.

Meanwhile, thousands of families are left to endure the loss of their sons and breadwinners, alongside the broader economic and social fallout of the continuous deployment of young men into combat.

Informed sources said that Ibb has become the primary source of fighters relied upon by Houthis to reinforce the Taiz fronts, followed by Dhamar, the Houthi-held capital Sanaa and its countryside, and the Amran governorate.

A young man from Ibb city, who escaped from a Taiz combat front days ago, recounted the recruitment tactics used by the militia to enlist youth and deploy them into battle under misleading slogans.

He revealed that he joined a military training course after being misled into believing it was preparation to confront Israel, only to find himself dispatched to Taiz to fight residents of a neighboring governorate who share fraternal bonds with the people of Ibb.

“They told us that the fighting in Taiz was part of the training and that we would later head to Palestine. Days passed and none of that happened,” he recalled.

Ibb has also been used as a launchpad for attacks on Taiz and other regions, said residents and local sources.

Activists warned that persisting with these policies threatens to spill the conflict's repercussions from the battlefields into the social fabric of both Ibb and Taiz, whose populations are bound by proximity, history, and shared interests.

Transforming these organic bonds into channels for mobilization and combat compounds local suffering, exposes more families to bereavement, and stokes divisions within communities, they said.

The activists called on notables and families in Ibb to resist Houthi recruitment drives and protect their sons from being lured to the frontlines, warning against the exploitation of ideological slogans to enlist youth and thrust them into clashes where families and local communities ultimately bear the human and social toll.

They also stressed the need of preventing residential areas and their vicinities from being transformed into military installations and ballistic missile launch sites, given the potential dangers such actions pose to civilians and their property.

Arab World

Iraq PM Dismisses Shatri as Head of Intelligence

Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi. (INA)
Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi. (INA)
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Iraq PM Dismisses Shatri as Head of Intelligence

Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi. (INA)
Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi. (INA)

Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi dismissed on Monday Hamid al-Shatri as chief of national intelligence.

The PM will assume the position in an acting role until a replacement is appointed.

Al-Shatri was appointed to his position on December 19, 2024, by then PM Mohammed Shia al-Sudani.

Al-Shatri was born in Dhi Qar in southern Iraq. He held several positions, including Director General of Intelligence and Counter-Terrorism at the Iraqi Ministry of Interior, a role he assumed in January 2021.

In November 2021, he was appointed deputy head of the National Security service, later becoming its head - a position he held until July 2023, when he was transferred to the National Security advisory.