Dailymorocco Your door for the daily news of morocco
Related Articles
The official listing of lobbying expenses in the United States, shows that Morocco remained active in 2018. Algeria has mysteriously disappeared from this listing.
To position itself with political and economic decision-makers in the United States, Morocco continues to bet on lobbyist firms. In 2018, its expenditures in this regard amounted to more than $ 1.7 million, says the Center for Responsive Politics (CRP), which relies on figures from the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), under the Department of Justice. This amount is distributed as follows: $ 1,305,000 disbursed by the Moroccan government and $ 414,923 by non-governmental parties.
This figure is slightly lower than the $ 1.8 million recorded a year earlier. Nevertheless, it is worth noting a nodal change in the distribution of costs incurred for this purpose in the United States between the two main players. Indeed in 2017, the share going to the Moroccan executive did not exceed $ 239,800.
Morocco and Qatar customers of the same lobbyist
We also learn that one of the latest actions in the Moroccan lobby in 2018 bears the signature of Glover Park Group (GPG). It dates from December 12, in the wake of the first rejection of the majority of the Democratic deputies in the House of Representatives to integrate Western Sahara in aid granted to the kingdom.
The document, a copy of which has been sent to FARA praises the kingdom’s contribution to the war on terror and recalls its billions of dollars spent on acquiring weapons from major American corporations.
The contract, signed in January 2018 and lasting 18 months, linking the Moroccan Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Glover Park Group (GPG), will expire next July.
Also in 2018 another operator, Iron Bridge Strategies, received 120 thousand dollars from the kingdom, says the CRP. The emirate of Qatar is also a customer of IBS with $ 125 thousand during the same period.
No information on Algeria
Strangely, the CRP does not provide any figures on Algeria’s lobbying spending in the United States in 2018. The site has not updated its data on the Eastern neighbor. Only the 421 thousand dollars dating back to 2017 are still there.
Yet last November, the Algerian government recruited the company Keene Consulting Services, headed by David Keene, considered close to the Republican Party and conservative circles, for $ 36,000 per month. An amount that in principle should be on FARA’s books.
Since signing the contract, KCS has not been idle. In January 2018, he helped former Foreign Minister Abdelkader Messahel lead a conference on “The Algerian experience in the fight against terrorism and the stabilization of the region” at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, based in Washington. Another conservative think-tank known to be close to Israel.
