Ahmed Assid, a prominent activist for the indigenous Amazigh people and member of the Royal Institute for Amazigh Culture (IRCAM), said the pagan rock engraving, known as a petroglyph — was destroyed this week in the Toubkal National Park.

“The information we have received from Amazigh activists in the area suggests Salafists were behind the act,” Assid told Reuters, noting however that he had yet to see pictures of the destroyed petroglyph.

“This act follows a noticeable rise in Salafist activities in predominantly-Amazigh regions of Morocco to enforce a puritanical interpretation of Islam,” he added.

He said, for example, Salafists were encouraging parents not to play traditional Amazigh music at their children’s weddings, giving them cash handouts to opt instead for Islamic religious chants.

“Their view is that aspects of Amazigh culture, including pre-Islamic heritage, still present today defeat the purpose of the Islamic conquests,” he added.

Morocco has generally followed a tolerant form of Sunni Islam, but Salafists rose to prominence after the Sept 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, with hundreds jailed for 2003 bombings in the town of Casablanca.

After the popular uprisings which swept the Arab world last year – which Morocco mostly escaped – they have been expanding their influence across North Africa.

Meryem Demnati, of the Amazigh Freeedoms and Rights Watchdog, also confirmed the destruction of the petroglyph and added that residents in the area blamed Salafists.

Officials at the Moroccan culture ministry could not be reached for comment.

Amazigh, or Imazighen, lived in north Africa long before Muslims set foot in the land in the 7th century. While there are no official figures on their numbers, Morocco is widely believed to have the biggest Amazigh community in the world.

Assid said Moroccan authorities were partly to blame for failing to protect ancient artifacts and other Amazigh archaeological sites.

“Some 37,000 Amazigh petroglyphs like the one that was destroyed this week have been smuggled out of Morocco in the past 20 years,” said Assid.

In July, al Qaeda-linked Islamist fighters used pick-axes, shovels and hammers to shatter earthen tombs and shrines of local saints in Mali’s fabled desert city of Timbuktu on the grounds they were defending the purity of their faith against idol worship.

(Reporting By Souhail Karam; Editing by Myra MacDonald)

A government source said a proposal for a partnership with flag carrier RAM will be made during a tour by King Mohammed to Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates that starts on Tuesday.

“We will listen to their (Gulf airlines) ideas about how they see this partnership … For our part, we may propose the sale of up to a 44 percent stake in RAM to the selected partner,” the source told Reuters on Monday .

“The idea is to capitalize on the solid presence of major Gulf airlines, especially in China, India, Latin America … markets where a huge, growing number can afford to travel every year.” Morocco aims to treble tourism receipts by 2020.

About 70 percent of tourists visiting Morocco come from euro zone countries, with the rest mostly from Gulf Arab countries. It aims to attract 20 million tourists by 2020, a little over double the current figure.

Tourism accounts for 10 percent of the country’s $93 billion gross domestic product and is the country’s second biggest direct employer after agriculture.

Tourism receipts absorb a big chunk of the country’s growing trade deficit, which helps keep the current account deficit within reasonable limits.

Morocco, which has been thinking about selling down its stake in RAM for over 20 years, led major efforts to restructure the group last year in a move tourism operators said was a sign the state was preparing for a sale.

RAM took 1.6 billion dirhams ($187 million) from the state last year to shore up finances hit by growing competition, lower sales and higher fuel prices. The capital injection corresponded to the 44 percent stake the government may sell.

The airline later slashed its workforce 30 percent to around 3,900 to improve efficiency.

In April, tourism minister Lahcen Haddad told Reuters that RAM cannot meet Morocco’s tourism ambitions alone.

With a relatively modest fleet of around 40 medium and long-haul aircraft, Royal Air Maroc has sought to develop Casablanca as a regional hub connecting mostly poorly-served west African capitals to Europe and North America.

“The issue of air transportation has never been out of the agenda. Morocco is not well-served by airlines. The tourists will not be coming on camels’ back,” said a local tourism industry operator, who noted the number of flights to Morocco fell 12 percent during the first quarter of the year.

“Not a single country can manage to develop tourism without a solid airline … Morocco has all it takes to develop tourism but it has yet to win the battle of air transportation,” the operator said, noting also that “high airport tariffs” are a deterrent to airlines serving Morocco.

($1 = 8.5701 Moroccan dirhams)

(Editing by Helen Massy-Beresford and Dan Lalor)

(souhail.karam@thomsonreuters.com)

Kuwait’s Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Khaled al-Jarallah told Reuters the monarch would discuss investment and bilateral relations. “He is going on a tour in the Gulf countries,” said Jarallah, noting that the king was expected to visit Kuwait in October or November.

The monarch will also travel to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and Oman, Jarallah said.

A Saudi official who declined to be named under briefing rules told Reuters King Mohammed planned to visit Saudi Arabia after the haj, the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca which is expected to run from October 24 to 29 this year.

A spokesman for the Moroccan king’s cabinet declined to comment.

A tour of fellow Gulf monarchies by King Mohammed would be important diplomatically and financially for Morocco, which is ruled by the Arab world’s longest-serving dynasty but lacks the oil riches of the younger Gulf monarchies.

Since his enthronement in 1999, King Mohammed has kept his distance from Gulf Arab monarchies, with far fewer official visits than under his late father King Hassan. Some of the Gulf’s most influential rulers, including Saudi King Abdullah, regularly visit Morocco but mostly for medical or other private reasons.

EURO CRISIS

Morocco’s $90-billion economy is heavily exposed to the euro zone, whose troubles have hit tourism revenues, migrant remittances and foreign investment this year.

The king urged his government in July to tap financing from Gulf sovereign wealth funds in what was widely seen as an instruction to give Gulf investors more access to investment opportunities traditionally dominated by European and local firms.

An invitation last year for Arab kingdoms Morocco and Jordan to join the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) signaled that monarchies in the region were trying to strengthen links in the face of the “Arab Spring” uprisings.

Morocco largely escaped last year’s Arab Spring unrest but it has little cash to improve living standards amid heavy domestic pressure for jobs and measures to cut poverty.

“It will be a roadshow … an opportunity to market fresh investment opportunities Moroccan has to offer,” said an official Moroccan source.

Rabat hopes Gulf institutional investors will buy heavily into a $1-billion-plus sovereign bond later this year. King Mohammed is also expected to meet firms interested in the planned sale by Vivendi of its majority stake in Maroc Telecom.

Morocco is drafting a new banking law that should open the door to Islamic lenders. Rabat may also discuss partnerships between its state-run airline Royal Air Maroc and a major Gulf airline, after low-cost carriers have reduced their business in Morocco due to lower European demand.

Rabat wants billions of dollars to fund ambitious solar and wind energy development plans as well as resort developments.

(Reporting by Sylvia Westall and Asma Alsharif in Cairo and Souhail Karam in Rabat; Editing by Andrew Roche)

In a statement carried by state media, the government
accused Omar Brouksy of “unprofessional” reporting on Thursday’s
vote in Tangier, a re-run after a parliamentary election last
year.

“AFP conveyed allegations that involved the monarchy in this
election, which took place in a transparent environment, thereby
undermining its neutrality and role as arbitrator that sits
above any electoral competition between political parties,” it
said.

A senior government official said AFP had published a story
on election day that said the poll in Tangier pitted moderate
Islamists of the Justice and Development Party (PJD) against
“candidates close to the monarchy”.

“We consider this to be a serious professional error … to
falsely involve the monarchy in an election race on the day it
was taking place. It sends a confusing message to voters,” the
official said.

AFP Global News Director Philippe Massonnet said: “The
report in question had no motive other than to inform and
provide context, with no intention of harming anyone
whatsoever.” He said AFP’s Rabat bureau had “the full confidence
of the agency’s management”.

The French Foreign Ministry said France was in touch with
Moroccan authorities over the issue.

In December, the PJD became the first Islamist party to lead
a Moroccan government after winning a parliamentary election
that King Mohammed had brought forward to prevent any spillover
from the Arab Spring uprisings. It formed a coalition government
with three other parties.

RELIGIOUS SYMBOLS

The election results for Tangier were scrapped after the PJD
was accused of using religious symbols during its campaign. The
poll was re-run on Thursday, and preliminary results had the PJD
winning two of the three seats.

The PJD’s closest rival in Tangier is the secular
Authenticity and Modernity Party (PAM), set up in 2008 by Fouad
Ali Himma to counter the rise of Islamist parties. Himma is now
an adviser to King Mohammed.

The official said AFP had later changed the wording of its
report to say the candidates were from PAM, but the government
had already taken the decision to punish the news agency.

Himma, a former schoolfriend of the king, is regarded as the
most influential figure after the monarch and a pillar of the
Makhzen, a secretive court elite that has nominated some
officials and set major policies.

He quit PAM in May 2011 at the height of mass protests
demanding political reform. After PJD’s election win, King
Mohammed appointed Himma as his adviser.

Morocco is ranked 138th in the 2011-2012 global Press
Freedom Index of countries compiled by Reporters Sans
Frontieres. The state controls television, and outspoken
publications have been forced to close, mostly by what they call
political pressure on advertisers.

Brouksy, a Moroccan national, was manhandled and slightly
injured by police last month as he covered a pro-democracy
protest in Rabat.

The government this week appointed a committee to draft a
new media bill meant to give the press greater freedom.

(Reporting by Souhail Karam; editing by Andrew Roche and Janet
Lawrence)

Women on Waves announced last week its intention to send their ship into the Moroccan port of Smir after visits to traditionally Roman Catholic countries Spain, Portugal and Ireland at the invitation of local women’s groups.

The group says it wants to raise awareness about the use of pills for medical abortions and it would carry out terminations of pregnancies aboard its own ship in international waters.

Earlier on Thursday, Marlies Schellekens, a doctor from Women on Waves, said that Smir harbour was “totally blocked by warships so no one can get in”, a day after Rabat said the activists would be barred from arriving by sea.

But Moroccan sources later said Women on Waves had actually sent only a yacht into Smir several days ago rather than their usual larger main campaign ship in the apparent expectation that Morocco would not let the group in anyway.

“The yacht has now left Smir to head back home. It was a publicity stunt,” an official source said.

“The organisers took everyone for a ride … The people (in the yacht) stayed aboard and did not complete immigration procedures that would have allowed them to enter Moroccan territory.”

Women on Waves had been invited to Morocco by local rights group Alternative Movement for Individual Freedoms (MALI).

In Morocco, as in other Muslim states, abortion is illegal and punishable by up to 20 years in prison. But hundreds of illegal abortions are carried out daily in underground clinics or using herbal medicines, sometimes causing death or injury.

Each year hundreds of Moroccan single mothers are forced to abandon or give up their babies for adoption because of the stigma linked to abortion and pre-marital pregnancy.

On Wednesday Interior Minister Mohand Laenser, a secular member of the government led since December by moderate Islamists, said the Women on Waves would not be allowed into Morocco. “The organisers have never contacted us to seek permission to visit Morocco,” Laenser told Reuters.

The Moroccan Association Against Clandestine Abortion said in June that legislation on abortion was out of step with social realities in the country and the number of unsafe abortions showed the need for a political commitment to legal reform.

Organisers of an all-gay cruise in June said Moroccan officials had canceled what would have been the first visit of its kind to a Muslim country.

(Editing by Mark Heinrich)

The Women on Waves ship, which already has visited traditionally Roman Catholic countries Spain, Portugal and Ireland at the invitation of local women’s groups, had planned to arrive at Smir, northern Morocco, but was denied entry.

“The harbor is totally blocked by warships so no one can get in, and there are a lot of police here,” said Marlies Schellekens, a doctor from Women on Waves who had gone on shore.

“We’re now working on an emergency plan but we have opened up our hotline so women can call for information about the abortion pill.”

The group, which was invited to Morocco by rights group Alternative Movement for Individual Freedoms (MALI), wants to spread awareness on land about the use of pills for a medical abortion and said it would carry out abortions aboard the ship in international waters.

Like in other Muslim countries, abortion is illegal and punishable by up to 20 years in prison under Moroccan law, but hundreds of illegal abortions are carried out daily in clinics or using herbal medicines, sometimes resulting in death or injury.

“In Morocco, between 600 and 800 abortions are done every day, but only about 250 are done by doctors, so they are safer, while the rest are taking risks,” Schellekens said.

There was no immediate comment from officials on Thursday, but on Wednesday Interior Minister Mohand Laenser, a secular member of the government led since December by moderate Islamists, said the ship would not be allowed to reach Morocco.

“The organizers have never contacted us to seek permission to visit Morocco,” Laenser told Reuters. “Plus, we are not going to let them in.”

Each year hundreds of single mothers are forced to abandon or give up their babies for adoption because of the stigma linked to abortion and pre-marital pregnancy.

The Moroccan Association Against Clandestine Abortion said in June that the legislation on abortion was disconnected from the social realities of the country and the number of unsafe abortion required a political commitment for a change.

Organisers of an all-gay cruise in June blamed Moroccan officials for the cancellation of what would have been the first visit of its kind to a Muslim country.

(Additional reporting by Sara Webb in Amsterdam; Editing by Alison Williams)

In a statement carried by the official MAP news agency, the
agriculture ministry said the government would draft a new
development plan for the sugar industry that aims to have 53
percent of domestic sugar demand produced locally by 2020.

The ministry said currently 35 percent is produced locally,
which means Morocco will need to import close to 850,000 tonnes
of raw sugar in the 12 months till end-May, 2013. The ministry
did not elaborate.

With a population of 32 million people, sugar consumption
per capita in Morocco stands at around 90 pounds, or an annual
1.3 million tonnes.

In the eight months to end-August, Morocco imported 691,300
tonnes of raw sugar, of which 60,000 tonnes was during August
alone, at an average price of 5,295 dirhams ($610) per tonne,
data from the foreign exchange regulator showed.

Under a previous government-sponsored development plan
launched in 2008, farmers and private sugar monopoly Cosumar
agreed to raise homegrown sugar output by 45 percent
to 675,000 tonnes, or 55 percent of domestic needs by 2013.

Besides scarce rainfalls this year, tensions between farmers
and Cosumar and floods during the two previous years have had a
negative impact on the plan.

Since its launch, no steps have been taken to open up the
sugar industry and tensions between Cosumar and farmers in the
last year have threatened to halt the delivery of their sugar
beet crop due mainly to what they say are unfair terms.

Driss Ghezlaoui, a sugar beet farmer from the Doukkala
region, said sugar beet-planted areas in an area that usually
produces 40 percent the country’s sugar beet had actually
shrunk since the plan was launched in 2008.

“The (2008-2013) plan projected that sugar beet would cover
25,000 hectares this year. Today, it stands at 5,000 hectares,”
Ghezlaoui told Reuters. “The difficulties between Cosumar and
farmers prevented this plan from delivering its objectives
because there is no fair trade here,” he said.

Cosumar holds a monopoly in the processing of the local
sugar beet and cane harvest and refining of raw sugar imported
mostly from Brazil and India. Its majority shareholder is
National Investment Co (SNI), an investment vehicle in which the
ruling monarchy is the biggest shareholder.

SNI has listed its 63.7-percent stake in Cosumar – which has
a market value of $800 million – among assets up for sale under
a portfolio restructuring plan to focus on sectors such as
tourism, telecoms and renewable energies.

($1 = 8.6108 Moroccan dirhams)

(Editing by James Jukwey)

Coinciding with the visit of a U.N. torture investigator for a rare fact-finding mission in Morocco, U.S.-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said five activists convicted last week may have been forced by violence to confess to crimes.

“The court sent protesters to jail on the basis of confessions allegedly obtained under torture, while refusing to summon the complainants to be heard in court,” said Eric Goldstein, HRW’s deputy Middle East and North Africa director.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said last week that Morocco could be a regional model after it managed to contain Arab Spring protests with reforms. But she urged Rabat to reform the courts, make government more open and respect human rights.

Last week, a Casablanca court sentenced five activists – arrested at a protest in July against high prices – to between eight and 10 months in prison for, among other things, “unauthorized gathering and insulting the police”.

HRW said the activists denied the charges and said the police had tortured them.

It was the latest verdict against pro-democracy activists of the February 20 Movement which led Arab Spring protests in Morocco. Activists have been jailed for protesting, insulting or clashing with police.

Last week, a network of 18 Moroccan human rights organizations said rights have declined despite the adoption of a new charter proposed by the ruling monarchy last year at the height of street protests.

“Morocco can guarantee fair trials only when courts seriously investigate allegations of coerced confessions and dismiss as evidence any confessions the police obtained improperly,” HRW’s Goldstein said.

HRW’s statement came at the start of a week-long visit by Juan Mendez, the United Nations special rapporteur on torture worldwide.

Mendez was invited by Rabat “to assess improvements and identify remaining challenges regarding torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of punishment” his office said. His visit will include the disputed Western Sahara territory.

“My ultimate task is to engage with decision-makers and key actors to help the authorities uphold the rule of law, promote accountability for past abuses and allegations of torture and ill-treatment, fulfill the right of reparations for victims, and to ensure that alleged perpetrators are held responsible in conformity with international law,” Mendez said.

(Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

In a YouTube video posted last month, Abdallah Nahari berated Mokhtar Leghzioui, editor of secular-leaning Al-Ahdath al-Maghribia newspaper, after he told an Arab television channel that he would not stand in the way of his mother and sister if they wished to have sexual relationships outside of marriage.

“What does religion call this kind of person? A pimp. And what does the law reserve for a pimp? Kill whoever has nothing to be jealous of,” Nahari told a handful of followers on the video that has been viewed more than 200,000 times.

Morocco has an Islamic-inspired penal code that bans sex outside marriage and Moroccans buying alcohol, but the authorities favor a tolerant brand of Islam in which young couples display affection in the street and locals often outnumber tourists in bars and night clubs.

Although no harm has come to the editor, a court official in the northeastern city of Oujda said Nahari would have to respond to the charge of “outright incitation to murder”.

“Nahari has been interrogated by criminal police since early July. Now, an examining judge will interrogate him to build up a case,” the official said.

It is the first time such a charge has been brought against a citizen since 2003, when the law was changed to allow only members of the Supreme Clerics Council, chaired by the king, to issue the edicts after a suicide attack in Casablanca.

It comes after the Justice and Development Party (PJD) became in December the first Islamist party to lead a Moroccan government, riding a wave of support for Islamist movements inspired by the Arab Spring revolts.

The PJD’s rise has brought the role of religion back into the heart of politics in a country ruled by an ancient monarchy that claims descent from Prophet Mohammad to legitimize its authority.

Nahari is a well-known preacher whose fiery Friday sermons have often angered secular-leaning newspapers. He is especially popular among the poor of Oujda because of his charity work in a country that has widespread poverty and illiteracy.

Nahari also slammed calls by the main AMDH human right group to decriminalize sexual relationships outside of wedlock.

“This is Morocco for you. They want to legalize what is prohibited … And the clerics are silent,” Nahari said, calling human right activists in Morocco stooges of the West.

Justice and Public Freedoms Minister Mustafa Ramid, a PJD member, quashed any debate by telling parliament that sex outside marriage would remain illegal, angering many rights activists as a sign the party preferred restrictive legislation which they say is outdated for the needs of Moroccan society.

While illegal, sexual relationships outside marriage wedlock are widespread, even in less developed rural areas, although it is punishable by up to 12 months in prison.

(Editing by Alison Williams)

Rabat’s move followed the defection last week of Syria’s ambassador to Iraq and the flight the week before of a prominent general once close to Assad – developments that Western officials said showed that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was losing his grip on power as the rebellion against him drags on.

Earlier on Monday rumors circulated that the ambassador to Rabat, Nabih Ismail, had also defected to the rebel side. A Syrian embassy official denied this but had no further comment.

Morocco’s Foreign Ministry did not immediately explain the timing or the reason for its decision to expel Ismail, but said in a statement the situation in Syria “cannot remain as it is”.

It added that Morocco wished for “an efficient and resolute action to ensure a political transition towards a democratic setup that guarantees Syria’s unity, stability and regional safety to achieve the brotherly Syrian people’s aspirations for dignity, freedom and development.”

Ambassador Ismail and his deputy Anwar Mohamed were not immediately available for comment, but the Syrian government struck back quickly by declaring Morocco’s ambassador Mohamed Ikhssasi persona non grata as well.

Morocco had already recalled Ikhssasi in November 2011, and Monday’s decision to kick out Ismail was the latest in a series of diplomatic expulsions that have increased Assad’s international isolation as Syrian rebels gain strength.

Ali Anouzla, editor of independent online newspaper Lakome.com, said Rabat may have sought to avoid diplomatic embarrassment by ejecting the Syrian envoy ahead of the next meeting of Friends of Syria – Assad’s opponents in the West, the Arab world plus Turkey – that it is scheduled to host soon.

“It (expulsion) feels very belated,” he said.

In May, the United States, France, Britain, Canada, Germany, Italy, Spain, Australia, Bulgaria and Switzerland all turfed out Syrian diplomats in response to a massacre of 108 people in the town of Houla in May. Japan followed suit.

Morocco’s North African neighbors Tunisia and Libya, which saw their own dictators swept away in last year’s Arab Spring uprisings, expelled Syrian diplomats as far back as February.

Morocco itself was rocked by pro-democracy demonstrations, inspired by Arab Spring uprisings, last year to demand a constitutional monarchy, less corruption and poverty.

Unlike in Syria, where initial unrest was met with a military crackdown, the Moroccan protests abated after King Mohammed floated a charter of democratic reforms and let moderate Islamists take over the government for the first time.

(Writing by Lin Noueihed, editing by Mark Heinrich)