Middle East Near You

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...

In an interview with MEMO, Commander of Operation IRINI Rear Admiral Fabio Agostini disputes the criticism that the operation fails to effectively enforce the arms embargo imposed on Libya...

On 16 September, 2011, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) passed Resolution 2009, creating the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL). The mission, which has boasted seven chiefs...

Slovakia's former Foreign Minister Jan Kubis was approved as the United Nations' new Libya envoy almost one year after the last envoy, Ghassan Salame, resigned. He is number seven...

One of the US foreign policy standards is supporting Israel at all levels, even if that means violating international laws and norms. Every new US president, before they are...

On 20 January, Joe Biden will be sworn in as the 46th president of the United States. This will end four years of Donald Trump's foreign policy that has...

The United Nations (UN) Secretary-General António Guterres, in a letter to member states dated 31 December, asked regional blocs to nominate observers to monitor Libya's shaky ceasefire and arms...

For the first time in about six years, an Egyptian delegation visited Tripoli, Libya, in an attempt to improve relations between Egypt and the Government of National Accord (GNA)...

Acting United Nations (UN) Envoy to Libya Stephanie Williams announced on 23 October: " a crucial sign of hope for the Libyan people." Williams was enthusiastically describing a...

The United States justice department is scheduled at 15:30 GMT today to announce a new indictment against a Libyan individual, possibly two, in the bombing of Pan Am Flight...

On the Egyptian presidency website there is a page dedicated to the awards and medals that Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi received long before he became president. Yet, the...

In Algeria's challenging guessing game, the health and whereabouts of the president have been the hardest to guess, as always. Is President Abdelmadjid Tebboune healthy enough to carry on...

The third appeal hearing for the Lockerbie bombing's only conviction ended last Thursday before Scotland's highest court. The five judges have now retired to deliberate their verdict. Presiding Lord...

The Libyan Political Dialogue Forum (LPDF) is continuing in Tunis amid reports of bribery. On 23 November, acting head of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL), Stephanie...

A well-known lawyer and human rights activist was gunned down in Benghazi, Libya, on 10 November. Hanan Al-Barassi, known as the "Granny of Burqa", was murdered at around 2pm...