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Morocco

June 15, 2026

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Morocco's midfielder Azzedine Ounahi celebrates scoring with teammates during the FIFA World Cup 2026 Group E African qualification football match between Morocco and Niger at the Prince Moulay Abdellah Sports Complex in Rabat on September 5, 2025. (Photo by Abdel Majid BZIOUAT / AFP)

Culture

10 MENA teams at 2026 World Cup: Morocco eyes title, Iran faces visa hurdles

Jordan is competing in its first World Cup, while Iraq is making only its second appearance, as teams from the region seek to advance against European and Latin American powerhouses.

Crops of wheat and barley in Terbol village on May 10, 2022, in Bekaa Valley, Lebanon.

Analysis

MENA wheat importers face food security risks as Hormuz crisis festers

Home to many of the world's largest wheat importers, the Middle East and North Africa face acute food security risks as the US-Israel-Iran war disrupts global fertilizer flows and pushes up prices.

Samuel Wendel

By Samuel Wendel

In Washington, DC, reporting on regional business and tech

Archaeologists at the entrance of the Contrebandiers (Smugglers) Cave, some 12 miles from the Moroccan capital, Rabat, Sept. 18, 2021.

Culture

Fossil discovery repositions Morocco at center of human evolution 800,000 years ago

Once overlooked, Morocco has emerged as a focal point of human prehistory, with new discoveries and a landmark report reshaping what we know about our species’ evolution.

An emergency vehicle drives through flood waters as residents are evacuated and relocated to other towns as preventive and emergency evacuations are carried out to move residents living near flood-prone areas following the weather alert and the rise in the water level of the Loukkos River, with flooding expected in the coming days, in Ksar El Kebir on Feb. 1, 2026.

Storm Leonardo displaces 140,000 as heavy floods hit northern Morocco

Heavy rains from the storm have flooded northern Morocco, prompting mass evacuations and straining emergency services.

Latest News

From Egypt to Lebanon: What’s at stake for regional states on Trump’s visa ban list?

Culture

Morocco’s next generation of writers fights for a place on the shelf

A customer browses books at a bookshop in the Moroccan capital Rabat on August 9, 2018. On the main arteries of old Rabat, dozens of itinerant booksellers offer books in French, Arabic, and sometimes in English, up to ten times cheaper than their originals. Despite being prohibited, the pirated-books market is largely tolerated in cities across the North African kingdom. (Photo by FADEL SENNA / AFP) (Photo by FADEL SENNA/AFP via Getty Images)

Morocco’s markets rise as World Cup spending fuels largest IPO in decades

CASABLANCA, MOROCCO - AUGUST 20: In this handout image from Populous, digital renderings of the proposed Stade Hassan II stadium in Morocco, projected to be the largest football stadium in the world with 115,000 capacity are depicted on August 20, 2024 in Casablanca, Morocco. The stadium design is by Populous and Oulalou + Choi (Photo by Populous via Handout/Getty Images)

Naima Morelli

In Rome, reporting on Middle East culture

Francisco Serrano

In Lisbon, reporting on North Africa business

An activist carrying a Berber flag walks on a hilltop above a silver mine, where dozens of poor and unemployed young villagers have been holding a permanent sit-in since 2011, near the town of Imider, southeastern Morocco, August 31, 2015. They have cut off the flow of water from a well that supplies one of the biggest silver mines in Africa. Protesters want to make the company hire more locals and reconsider its water and environmental policies. Picture taken August 31, 2015. REUTERS/Youssef Boudlal - RTX1

Sit-in in Morocco’s south still going strong as it enters its seventh year

After six years of an uninterrupted sit-in, the inhabitants of Imider in southeast Morocco march to reaffirm their demands.

Protesters throw stones towards riot police during a demonstrating against alleged corruption in the provincial town of Imzouren, Morocco, June 2, 2017. REUTERS/Youssef Boudla - RTX38R6V

Protests continue in Morocco despite crackdown

Hirak, a protest movement active in Morocco’s marginalized Rif region, is still going strong despite brutal police repression and arrests.

WASHINGTON, DC - NOVEMBER 04: Chairman Ed Royce (R-CA), participates in a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on Capitol Hill, November 4, 2015 in Washington, DC. The committee heard testimony from State Department√äofficials on√äU.S. policy after Russia's escalation in Syria. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

House rejects Trump’s Middle East aid cuts

The House spending bill calls for far more assistance to North Africa.

Protesters from Rif movement Al-Hirak Al-Shaabi, or "Popular Movement" chant during a demonstration against corruption, repression and unemployment in Morocco's northern town of Imzouren in the early hours of June 11, 2017.
Demonstrators have rallied nightly in Al-Hoceima and the nearby town of Imzouren since the arrest of Al-Hirak leader Nasser Zefzafi on May 29 and the subsequent arrests of dozens more. / AFP PHOTO / FADEL SENNA (Photo credit should read FADEL SENNA/AFP/Getty Images)

Protests grow over police actions in Morocco

The Moroccan government promotes the country as a model for stability in the region, but its failure to calm months of protests could have serious consequences.

A displaced elderly Iraqi man who just fled his home arrives on military humvee at Sepcial forces base , as Iraqi forces battle with Islamic State militants, in western Mosul, Iraq February 27, 2017. REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra - RTS10M3H

Trump budget slashes Middle East aid

The State Department is seeking deep cuts to military and economic assistance for Arab states.

Morocco cracks down on fighters returning from IS

The Moroccan authorities are deploying all efforts to curb the phenomenon of former Islamic State fighters returning to their home country by arresting them.

Algerian city employees install Algerian flags and President's Abdelaziz Bouteflika poster on the streets ahead of the Parliamentary election in Algiers, Algeria April 26,2017.Picture taken 26 April 2017. REUTERS/Ramzi Boudina - RTS14O6W

Russia keeping a close eye on Algeria

Algeria’s new legislature, facing tough economic times domestically, needs to make gains in foreign policy to regain citizens’ trust — something Russia might be able to facilitate.

Abdelilah Benkirane, secretary-general of Morocco's Islamist Justice and Development Party (PJD) speaks during a new conference at the party's headquarters in Rabat, Morocco early October 8, 2016. REUTERS/Youssef Boudlal - RTSRB02

Morocco finally gets new government, but at what cost?

The announcement of a new Cabinet in Morocco after months of difficulty revealed that the Islamist Justice and Development Party (PJD) may have had to pay a heavy price for compromise.

Polisario Front soldiers take part in a parade for the 35th anniversary celebrations of their independence movement for Western Sahara from Morocco, in Tifariti, southwestern Algeria February 27, 2011. REUTERS/Juan Medina (ALGERIA - Tags: CIVIL UNREST POLITICS MILITARY) - RTR2J6W4

How Polisario Front hopes to partner with Russia in Western Sahara

Polisario Front officials in Western Sahara are working to enlist Russia as an ally at the United Nations Security Council in their fight for independence, as they believe both sides have many shared interests.

Could foreign partners help revive ailing Arab film industry?

The Sharm el-Sheikh Arab and European Film Festival started a debate through a seminar on joint film projects between the Arab world and Europe, over the feasibility of international co-productions.

Egypt's Minister of Trade and Industry Tarek Kabil attends an agreement signing ceremony with President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi at the El-Thadiya presidential palace in Cairo, Egypt October 5, 2016. Picture taken October 5, 2016. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh - RTX2Q7VA

Why Egypt is moving forward on free trade

Experts consider Egypt's recent actions supporting the Agadir Agreement significant, as Egypt has the largest market among the free-trade agreement's member countries, which will enjoy greater trade and investment opportunities with the help of Egyptian labor and investment opportunities.

A woman holds a placard with both the Morocco and EU flags during a rally by Moroccans and supporters of Morocco at the EU-Morocco summit in Granada March 7, 2010. REUTERS/Pepe Marin (SPAIN - Tags: POLITICS) - RTR2BCFI

EU deeply divided over Western Sahara policy

A European Court of Justice decision excluding Western Saharan exports from receiving preferential tariffs granted to Morocco has highlighted the need for the European Union to address the issue of who represents the people of Western Sahara.