Middle East Near You

On 9 September, Libya's Tobruk-based parliament passed law Number 1, 2021, for the direct election of president of the country and outlining his duties and responsibilities. The 77 articles...

Last week marked 22 years since the African Union (AU) replaced the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) which was created in 1963 with only 32 members. The other 22...

Less than a month after Tunisia's President Kais Saied had assumed sweeping executive powers, dismissed the government, suspended parliament and lifted the immunity of its members, and took over...

Do any of America's allies still trust its commitment to them? After the withdrawal from Afghanistan, they must feel a sense of abandonment by the US. Critics point out...

Almost all political and social debates about Libya nowadays are centred on the presidential and legislative elections scheduled to be held on 24 December. Ever since the Libyan Political...

What, I wonder, is Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar up to in Libya? The simple answer to that complex question is that he still wants to rule the country. The...

Moussa Faki Mahamat, the Chairman of the Commission of the African Union (AU), quietly and unceremoniously granted Israel observer status within the organisation on 22 July. The move surprised...

When Tunisia's President Kais Saied took over executive powers on 25 July, the former constitutional law professor justified his action by pointing out the failure of successive governments due...

Tunisia's President Kais Saied surprised everybody, inside the country and outside, by his announcement on Sunday to suspend the parliament, annul MPs immunity, dismiss the prime minister and take...

"I wish I could wake up one day and find that Gaza has sunk into the sea." That quote is attributed to Israel's late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. He...

For the fifth time in three months, Libya's parliament failed to approve the national budget halting the plans of the Government of National Unity (GNU). In a statement on...

On 2 July, the UN-led Libyan Political Dialogue Forum (LPDF) ended four days of talks in Geneva but failed to reach agreement on the task at hand: agreeing a...

The International Berlin Conference on Libya — Berlin II — concluded last week with a rather short communiqué. It predecessor, the January 2020 Berlin I conference, ended with 66...

Last month, Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh visited Bani Walid, south-west of Tripoli. He toured the mountainous town, visited some government institutions and met with local officials and civil society leaders....

Germany is preparing to host the second Berlin conference on Libya on 23 June in cooperation with the UN Mission in the North African country. The first conference was...

Over the past five decades, the US has used its veto in the UN Security Council on 52 occasions to protect Israel from even being censored or reproached let...

Could Libya's first female foreign minister be forced out of her job, or will she survive the barrage of verbal abuse, criticism, incitement and political attacks? Although the attacks...

Stephanie Williams joined the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) two years ago as deputy to the then mission head Ghassan Salame. In March last year she took centre...

What basically led to the latest Israeli military offensive against the Gaza Strip is very simple: the ongoing Israeli policy to grab as much land in Palestine as possible;...

Cairo and Ankara have been on opposite sides for much of the last eight years. Ankara saw the rise of President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi to power in 2013 and...

The then United Nations acting envoy to Libya, Stephanie Williams, said on 2 December last year that there are 20,000 foreign fighters and mercenaries in Libya. She described the...

Over the past three weeks many European Union officials have queued up in the capital of Libya, Tripoli, to offer their support to the country's newly-elected interim authority, the...

Self-styled Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar is a serious hurdle facing the Government of National Unity (GNU). He could prove to be a more complex issue than initially expected, taking...

Deir Yassin is a Palestinian village situated on a hilltop, a short distance from the west of Jerusalem. If you try to find it on a map today, you...

On 29 March, the French Embassy in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, was reopened after seven years of closure. The new embassy relocated from the upscale Al-Andalus neighbourhood, west of...

On 10 March, Libya's new interim government, the Government of National Unity (GNU), won the parliamentary vote of confidence and was sworn in on 15 March. Its agenda is...

In a televised speech on 11 March, Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune dissolved the lower house of parliament, the People's National Assembly, triggering new legislative elections. However, he did not...

Operation Odyssey Dawn, launched on 19 March, 2011, was the code name for the US military intervention in Libya vaguely authorised by United Nations Security Council (UNSC) Resolution 1973....

On 23 October, Libya's 5+5 Joint Military Commission (JMC) agreed to a country-wide ceasefire which has been holding ever since, with the exception of little wars and episodes of...

Libya's designated Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh, in his first press conference on 25 February, did not name the expected cabinet line-up. Many, in Libya and abroad, eagerly awaited...

As the international body entrusted with world peace, security and conflict mediation worldwide, the United Nations (UN) has been involved in Libya's internal conflict from the very start. This...

Wednesday marked ten years since the start of the Libyan uprising against the government of Muammar Gaddafi. France's military intervention was eventually ushered in before the North Atlantic Treaty...