Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Dr Mustafa Fetouri
-
The UN has opened up Libya to foreign meddling and foreign fighters
Between February 2011 and January 2025, the UN Security Council (UNSC) adopted 44 Libya-related resolutions. The first resolution was number 1970, passed on 26 February 2011, reaffirming the UNSC’s “strong” commitment to Libya’s “sovereignty, independence, territorial integrity and national unity.” In another paragraph, the resolution refers the situation in...
-
Can Europe break away from the harmful US policy on the Middle East?
The Israeli mass murder and destruction of the Gaza Strip exposed the weaknesses of Europe and its institutions, including the EU itself. First it showed that the EU, as a whole, is unable to collectively act on its own values and principles. Europe could not pull itself together and...
-
What does Trump’s Ukraine policy offer the Middle East?
Donald Trump prides himself on deal making in a way that transcends conventional approaches whereby he has the ultimate say with all other parties accepting his decision. He plays both roles; that of the arbitrator and that of negotiator; inherently conflicting roles particularly in political negotiations. Take his approach to...
-
Why 2025 could be the most disastrous for Arabs and Palestinians in particular
From US President Donald Trump’s perspective, the disaster in Gaza is about adequate housing, sanitation and maybe a few schools, a couple of hospitals and a couple of high rise structures to add some flavour to the place and make it a little more “sexy” for the eye! Real...
-
USAID helped turn Libya into a recipient of donations rather than a donor state
On the first day of his presidency, Donald Trump signed an executive order suspending funds to global programs administrated and managed by the State Department’s United States Agency for International Development (USAID). In total, $44 billion earmarked for funding thousands of programs, including health programs in dozens of countries...
-
The unbounded humiliation of Libya: how a once proud nation is being mistreated by others
If you are a regular observer of events in Libya, you must have noticed the high pitch of diplomatic activities carried out by the United States Special Envoy, Richard Norland, the US Chargé d’Affaires Jeremy Berndt, or both as they roam the country meeting officials and visiting places. The...
-
Trump take 2: a new Balfour Declaration in a more lethal mixture
No one should be surprised by what Donald Trump does or says while President of the United States. This is a man with a limited understanding of world events and far too superficial knowledge of global geopolitics and its dynamics. He sees the entire world as no more than...
-
Rome ignores ICC arrest warrant for Libyan, sending him home to a hero’s welcome in Tripoli
Italy’s Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, yesterday, shared a video message on social media saying that she has been placed under investigation for her role in letting a Libyan citizen travel back to Libya despite being wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC). Ms Meloni said prosecutors are investigating her...
-
Will Iran pick up the pieces of the ‘Axis of Resistance’ while surviving another 4 years of Trump?
With Donald Trump officially in the White House as the 47 President of the United States of America, some countries, like the Islamic Republic of Iran, are already pondering the immediate and long-term impact of this “unconventional” master of the White House. Iran has already survived the flurry of executive...
-
What the Trump presidency will not do in Africa
President-elect Donald Trump is not known as an African enthusiast. He never visited the continent during his first term (2017-2021). Not many African leaders are known to be close to him in any capacity. There is no record of him setting foot on the continent even as private citizen but...
-
Remembering the First Intifada and the birth of Hamas
The Palestinian First Intifada started on 7 December, 1987, marked by mass demonstrations, first in Gaza before spreading to the entire Palestinian occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. Frustrated, angry and dispossessed Palestinians from all ages and all walks of Life took to the streets, throwing stones at the...
-
Libya now finds itself in the crosshairs of the superpowers
In his first comment on post-Assad Syria on 16 December, President Vladimir Putin said that Russia maintains relations with all groups in Syria and countries in the region and that most are interested in Russia’s military bases “remaining” in Syria. A week earlier, his Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said...
-
The hidden side of the Lockerbie Bombing that is never talked about
On 15 April 1992, I and my future wife took a flight from Tripoli to Cairo to spend few days before heading back to school in Athens. Midnight of that day was a milestone because the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) Resolution 748 would come into effect, banning all...
-
Is Eastern Libya a viable strategic alternative to Russian retreat from Syria?
On 30 September, 2015, Russian military jets bombed targets in Syria for the first time in what was the start of a long Russian involvement in the Syrian civil war, in progress since 2011. Earlier in the day, the Russian Duma authorised President Putin to deploy Russian air forces...
-
Is France being chased out of Africa for good or could it launch a comeback?
Landlocked Chad, a West African country, announced that it is breaking off its military and security ties with its former colonial master, France. Chad’s Foreign Minister, Abderaman Koulamallah, in making the surprise announcement on 28 November, declared that France should consider that “Chad has grown up, matured and is...
-
AFRICOM: Will it survive the Trump presidency and how will it operate in the future?
United States Africa Command, or AFRICOM, is a military structure founded in 2007 with the entire African continent as, to use the military jargon, its “theatre of operations”. The idea behind establishing the Command is hegemonic in nature and interventional in practice. The Command’s mission statement says AFRICOM “counters...
-
Desperate to appease Israel, Germany goes out of its way
Since October 2023 and the Palestinian Resistance’s daring attack on Israel, Germany – not any other European country – emerged as the biggest supplier of weapons to Israel, second only to the United States. The Swedish Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), estimated that, while the US provided 69...
-
Libya’s municipal elections expose the hypocrisy of the rotten political elite
16 November marked an important day in Libya as it managed to, successfully, organise elections in 58 municipalities across the huge country despite all difficulties facing such a big operation. From Al-Burdy on the Egyptian borders to Al-Kufra near the Sudanese borders, all the way to Ubrai near the...
-
Trump’s victory means Americans voted for the Republic not the Empire
Back in 2016 when Donald Trump first announced his presidential bid, almost every senior US politician dismissed him, usually with a kind of mockery that made fun of him. President Obama, for instance, said Donald Trump “will not be president”. Why? Because, he said, his trust in the “American...
-
Israel's US-backed long war against the United Nations
The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) adopted its Resolution 69 on 4 May, 1949 recommending that the UN General Assembly (UNGA) admit Israel as a member state. Interestingly enough, paragraph 1 of the Resolution reads: the Council “Decides in its judgement that Israel is a peace-loving State and is...
-
Israel forced the world to create UNRWA; now it wants UNRWA dead
At last, Israel took the decision it has been threatening for a long time: declare UNRWA an illegal entity, denying it the right to work from any territories under its control, including occupied lands in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. Simply said, Israeli Knesset just banned the organisation...
-
Despite being dead for 13 years, Gaddafi is still a commanding figure in Libya
20 October, 2024 marks 13 years since the late Libyan leader, Muammer Gaddafi, was murdered as he tried to leave Sirte, his home town on the Mediterranean coast, where he made his last stand against the NATO-supported rebels. When he arrived there, Sirte was already under intense attack by...
-
Now that the historical leadership of Hezbollah is gone, will the Party go, too?
Over the last three months, starting last July, Israel succeeded in targeting the top Hezbollah leadership in Lebanon through a series of well coordinated and targeted assassinations that wiped out the entire organisations’ founding leaders. By 1 October, it managed to kill the Islamic Resistance’s political and military commander,...
-
Is Iran about to let go of its regional allies, from Yemen to Lebanon? Could it actually do that?
Social media is rife with conspiracy theories focused on how Iran sold out its allies, from the late Ismail Haniyeh to the late Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah. Similar theories also surround the exploding pagers and wireless devices that killed and injured thousands in Lebanon. In both cases, it all comes down...