Middle East Near You

US President Donald Trump had to sneak in to Iraq, a supposed US ally, arriving at the Ein Al-Assad airbase for an unannounced visit on 26 December. Not a...

What transpired in Algeria over the last three weeks can hardly be seen as another episode of the peoples’ awakening that swept through North Africa in 2011 as part...

Between January and February this year Libyan Armed Forces (LNA) led by Field Marshall Khalifa Haftar have captured almost the entire southern region, known as Fezzan, including all its...

February 17 this year marks 30 years since the Arab Maghreb Union, better known by its French acronym UMA, was founded as an economic and political union bringing together...

Libya’s revolution started on 17 February 2011 in the eastern city of Benghazi and went on to end the rule of the late Muammar Gaddafi. On this, the eighth...

What started as series of public demonstrations and strikes across Iran nearly two years earlier peaked on 11 February, 1979, with the Islamic Revolution of Iran ending decades of...

For the last eight years, my home town of Bani Walid, 180 kilometres southwest of Tripoli, has become one of the favourite route for people traffickers and illegal migrants...

In his last report to the UN Security Council, the United Nations’ special envoy to Libya, Ghassan Salame, sounded both optimistic and pessimistic. He tried to paint a realistic...

The town of Harawah lies around 80 kilometres east of Sirte and nearly 550 kilometres east of Tripoli. I drove there earlier this month to see the most westerly...

On 16 December, just a few days after Libya’s long-awaited referendum law was passed by the Houses of Representatives, it faced its first legal hurdle. Veteran lawyer and member...

Between May and December last year Daesh attacked three sensitive government sites in the Libyan capital Tripoli causing deaths, injuries and extensive damages. All three sites symbolise state sovereignty...

On 5 January it will be 33 years since the end of Operation Moses, the secret operation to smuggle thousands of Ethiopian Jews, known as Falashas, out of Sudan...

If you did not know much about Chad, a country in the middle of Africa, it most likely it caught your eye on 26 November when its President, Idriss...

December 17 marks the eighth anniversary of what is called the “Arab Spring”, which started in Tunisia before spreading to the rest of the Middle East and North Africa...

A couple of years before the first Palestinian Intifada against the brutal Israeli occupation in 1987, Naji Al-Ali, a famous Palestinian cartoonist, produced one of his finest cartoons motivating...

The Palermo conference on Libya went ahead as scheduled — 12/13 November — with all of the local protagonists present, along with many regional and international players. Italy finally...

Between September 2017 and last month, Egypt hosted seven rounds of talks aimed at unifying the military establishment in neighbouring Libya. Participants were representatives of Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar,...

On 19 November, it will be 41 years to the day that the late Egyptian President Anwar Sadat embarked on his stunning and controversial visit to Israel. His trip...

Next week, Italy is hosting an international conference on Libya in Palermo, Sicily. Italy has every reason to be concerned about what is happening in Libya, given that the...

When France first occupied Algeria, an Arab, Muslim country on the Mediterranean coast in North Africa, in 1830 it did so with the firm belief that Algeria is an...

Seven years have passed since the United Nations authorised military intervention in Libya under the pretext of “humanitarian intervention” and a “responsibility to protect”. At the time it was...

The UN General Assembly voted on Tuesday by an overwhelming majority to grant the State of Palestine enhanced rights and privileges, allowing it to take over the chair of...

When Donald J Trump was three years old the UN General Assembly met a few blocks away from where he was born and adopted Resolution 302. That was in...

The UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) was established by the international organisation in September 2011 for an initial period of three months. UNSMIL’s mandate was to help the...

French journalist Jacques Mallet du Pan (1749-1800) once described the French Revolution by saying that, “Like Saturn, the Revolution devours its children.” Look at Libya today and you will...

Since the revolt that led to NATO intervention in Libya in 2011, the UN Security Council has passed almost 30 different resolutions and issued half-a-dozen presidential statements on the...

A new round of violence erupted on 27 August south of the Libyan capital Tripoli, between militias nominally allied to the Government of National Accord (GNA) and the 7th...

Tawergha is a small Libyan costal town roughly 300 kilometres east of the capital Tripoli. Its estimated that 40,000 of its inhabitants are black Libyans who have lived there...

Mohammad Bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s energetic young Crown Prince, seems to be in a hurry not only to consolidate his domestic power, as monarch-in-waiting, but also to make his...

During a press conference at the White House with Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte on 30 July, President Donald Trump said, “e recognise Italy’s leadership role in the stabilisation...

At the height of its strength in Libya, Daesh controlled the coastal city of Sirte, about 500 kilometres east of Tripoli, having amassed a sizeable force thanks to hundreds...

On 28 June, European Union leaders gathered in Malta for a summit specifically to come up with some policy or agreeable solution to stem the flow of migrants and...