Middle East Near You

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...

It is now, it seems, a matter of formalities before Joe Biden is inaugurated as the 46th President of the United States of America on 20 January. It is...

When US President Donald Trump announced on 24 October that Sudan had agreed to normalise ties with Israel he surprised few observers in the region. In February, Sudan's transitional...

In just two months, the situation in Libya has shifted dramatically, creating hope that a solution to the ongoing crisis might be around the corner. The latest event, in...

Between 2011 and today, many Western leaders who supported the military intervention in Libya nine years earlier have expressed some kind of regret about the war. But not a...

Hillary Clinton, Susan Rice and Samantha Power were the three principal advocates of war against Libya in 2011, setting the North African nation on a free fall ever since....

On 5 October, the United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Germany's Foreign Minister Heiko Maas co-chaired a ministerial meeting on Libya. The gathering was attended by ministers and...

The so-called "Abraham Accord", as the deal between the UAE and Israel is known, arrived faster than even the most enthusiastic Zionists could have imagined, even if secret negotiations...

Hardly mentioned in local media and rarely appearing in person, Major Hassan Maatouk is being groomed by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for a possible leading role within General...

The only Lockerbie bombing convict is one step closer to his guilty verdict being overturned, however, posthumously. Abdelbaset Al-Megrahi died at home in Tripoli on 21 May, 2012, while...

Almost simultaneously last Friday, Libya's rival authorities published statements calling for an immediate ceasefire, a return to talks and a host of other encouraging proposals which seem almost too...

France and Turkey, two NATO allies, are escalating the military situation in the Eastern Mediterranean over the growing dispute between Turkey and Greece – also NATO members. On 14...

If the late Muammar Gaddafi came back from the grave he would immediately recognise the new Libya, despite having never seen it. He predicted almost everything that is occurring...

The French self-proclaimed philosopher, author and journalist Bernard-Henri Levy, infamously known as "BHL", suddenly appeared in Libya on an unannounced visit. Landing in Misrata, he went on to visit...

On 17 July, Egypt's President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi received a delegation of half a dozen Libyan tribal elders to approve his 23 June announcement that he will send Egyptian...

Since 2011, Ethiopia has been building its Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, and during this time, neither Sudan nor Egypt stopped complaining about it. Being downstream, the two Arab countries...

Now that General Khalifa Haftar's military offensive to take Tripoli has failed, and his Libyan National Army (LNA) was pushed back, it is worth examining how the Western governments...

Foreign countries are now openly fighting their proxy war on Libyan soil and deciding on war, peace, and even when the country can resume its oil exports. In an...

Watching the recent military development in Libya, the obvious question is: does the US have a coherent strategy to counter the fast-growing Russian presence in the North African country?...

The League of Arab States (LAS) finally produced its last resolution on Libya, Resolution 8523, after its council met via video conference. On 19 June, Egypt called for the...

In early April 2019, General Khalifa Haftar's offensive to take Tripoli by force seemed almost certain to succeed. Thirteen months later he not only lost, but was forced to...

Self-styled field marshal Khalifa Haftar, the commander of the Libyan National Army (LNA), is a man with two interdependent missions. The first one is to rule Libya, while the...