Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Dr Mustafa Fetouri
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8 years ago NATO killed my family in their sleep
Eight years ago, NATO and its partners, killed nearly 200 Libyan civilians across the North African country. Eight years on, no one has been held accountable. Neither NATO nor its partners gave any explanation or offered an apology let alone compensation while the families of those killed still reel...
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Essebsi was hardly the ‘saviour’ of Tunisia at all
Tunisia’s President Beji Caïd Essebsi died last Thursday in a military hospital in the capital Tunis. He was 92 years old and had been in ill health. Within hours, the parliamentary Speaker was sworn in as Interim President until an election can be held, in line with the Tunisian...
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Life in besieged Tripoli
On 4 April, the Libyan National Army led by Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar reached the outskirts of Tripoli, Libya’s capital. Unable to proceed, the LNA effectively laid siege to the city in the hope that it could take it from the Government of National Accord. To date, neither side...
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8 years, 6 envoys; what more can the UN do to save Libya?
Between May 2011 and today the United Nations has appointed six special representatives to Libya, from five different nationalities, each serving less than two years. The present envoy, Ghassan Salame, is a respected Lebanese academic, former minister and experienced UN operative in both Iraq and Myanmar. His appointment brought...
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The dilemma of captured Daesh fighters and abandoned children? Who is responsible?
Donald Rumsfeld, the notorious former United States defence secretary, in describing his endless war on terror, once said: “We need a new vocabulary.” How would Rumsfeld, an advocate of the vague and sometimes absurd term “enemy combatant”, describe Daesh fighters, women and children trapped in legal limbo in Syria,...
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Let down by the world, migrants are caught in Libya’s crossfire
At least 44 migrants were killed in Tajoura’s detention centre and more than 140 others were wounded when a rocket hit it in the early hours yesterday. The Tajoura Centre for Combating Illegal Migration, about 22 kilometres east of the Libyan capital Tripoli, is one of several detention centres...
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The new Libya has forgotten its colonial past
In 1970, a few months after he took power, the late Muammar Gaddafi expelled all foreign military bases from the country. Between the end of World War II and 1969, when the young Gaddafi toppled King Idris, Libya was home to military bases of the major powers including the...
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Haftar has bet his career on taking Tripoli, but victory won’t mean a democratic Libya
When commander Khalifa Haftar ordered forces loyal to him, known as the Libyan National Army (LNA), to march on the capital Tripoli on 4 April, he did not set a time frame for this operation. Most likely he did not have any precise idea of how long such an...
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Everybody says that there is no military solution in Libya, but they are all wrong
For the past eight years, almost every regional and international power, as well as the UN, has been agreed that the solution for Libya is not military but political. An agreement, we are told, can only come about through inclusive negotiations among Libyans. They are all wrong. The champions of...
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Is Haftar helping Daesh return to Libya?
It is now 62 days since the Libyan National Army (LNA), commanded by Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, begin its march on the capital Tripoli. During that time Daesh has carried out at least four attacks in LNA controlled areas across the country. Capitalising on chaos and the security void...
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How Saudi Arabia is losing the war in Yemen
Is Saudi Arabia losing its military campaign in Yemen despite being the stronger party enjoying the support of its many allies? The Saudi-led coalition includes countries like Egypt, Bahrain, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Sudan, Jordan and Morocco, as well as Qatar before it fell out with Riyadh. Major...
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Paul Bremer’s legacy in Iraq is being expanded across the Arab World
Today marks 16 years since Paul Bremer, the former American diplomat, made history three times in the space of one month. First he was appointed head of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), the administration that ran Iraq after it was occupied by the United States in April 2003. This...
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Which Brotherhood does Trump want to designate as a ‘terrorist organisation’?
Ever since late 2017 there have been behind-the-scenes discussions in the White House about designating the Muslim Brotherhood as a “terrorist organisation”. On 30 April, administration officials confirmed that it is only a matter of time before the movement is indeed designated. This will have legal ramifications and repercussions....
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Who’s fighting their proxy wars in Libya?
Are there any countries that are meddling in the internal affairs of Libya making its internal conflicts more of a proxy war rather than domestic internal conflict? Do those countries help fan the flames that have kept igniting in the country over the last eight years? Why can the...
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Is Haftar right in claiming there are terrorists and militias in Tripoli?
Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, commander of the Libyan National Army (LNA), has long claimed that terrorists and rogue militias are controlling the capital Tripoli, placing his campaign as part of the international “war on terror”. In launching his attack on 4 April, his spokesperson repeatedly said that “terrorists” are...
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Haftar has clearly been given the green light to conquer Tripoli
When the Libyan National Army (LNA) launched its current offensive on Tripoli on the orders of Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, his regional backers as well as international sympathisers were quick to deny any prior knowledge of what he was doing. France, in particular, a major European Union (EU) member...
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If Haftar pulls back now, he could spell his own demise
Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, commander of the Libyan National Army (LNA), surprised everyone by launching his “Flood of Dignity” military offensive to take the capital Tripoli. While the operation was expected; embarking on it now is astonishing. I have previously warned that Haftar’s next destination was Tripoli but that this...
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The Arab League summit was business as usual
The Arab League has just concluded its thirtieth summit in Tunis, the capital of Tunisia, where leaders of Arab countries gathered for one day of discussions aimed at finding pan-Arab solutions to their many divisive and complicated problems. Was this anything new? Hardly. The umbrella group of Arab countries, is...
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Could the Afghan model rescue Libya?
Finally, the United Nations’ special envoy to Libya Ghassan Salame announced the dates and venue for his long-awaited Libyan National Conference (LNC). It is now scheduled to take place from 14-16 April in the Libyan south-western town of Ghadames. A historical town which once was a tourist attraction in...
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Trump snuck into Iraq. Rouhani was welcomed with open arms
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 single Iraqi official was there to welcome him. Instead, Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdel-Mahdi angrily snubbed him, refusing to travel...
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There is no Arab Spring in Algeria; or is there?
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 of what has been dubbed the “Arab Spring”. Then, regimes in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya were deposed. The crisis in...
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Now controlling two-thirds of Libya can Haftar take Tripoli?
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 oil fields and major population centres. Surprisingly, the advancing forces were welcomed by cheerful locals in almost every little village...
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The Arab Maghreb Union that never was
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 the five North African countries. The agreement establishing the UMA was singed in the Moroccan city of Marrakesh on 17 February...
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Why are Libyans not celebrating the anniversary of the revolution?
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 anniversary of the revolution, many Libyans are mourning that day, rather than celebrating. To understand why, I asked my thousands of...
