22 May 2020; MEMO: An Emirati foundation announced on Thursday that it will suspend all its activities in Morocco, due to the increasing tension and discord between Abu Dhabi and Rabat during the past few weeks, which amounted to an attack on Morocco’s institutions.
Moroccan website Banassa quoted Mohammed El-Ani, general director of Mominoun without Borders Foundation for Studies and Research, stating that: “The decision to suspend all the foundation’s activities until further notice is due to the circumstances and repercussions imposed by the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.”
The foundation publishes four magazines, Yatafakarun, Thawat, Albab and Ta’wilyat, in which dozens of Moroccan researchers’ and journalists’ work is published.
However, sources from the foundation confirmed that the abrupt suspension of its activities has nothing to do with the coronavirus pandemic, and: “It is rather due to the great tension in the Moroccan-Emirati relations, and the fact that Morocco has not yielded to many external orders, which unfortunately made the cultural and intellectual foundations pay this cost.”
The source, whose identity was not revealed by Banassa, indicated that Mominoun Without Borders has never been a profitable foundation and it has never relied on book sales or exhibitions in organising its activities, but all the intellectual and cultural products, conferences and other activities it has provided have been funded by the UAE.
