Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Dr Mustafa Fetouri
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Libya’s constitutional battle
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 of the country’s constitutional assembly Daw Al-Mansouri told MEMO at his Tripoli office that he has filed a lawsuit before...
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Why is Daesh’s threat in Libya is not taken seriously?
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 and government control. On 2 May last year, Daesh destroyed much of the county’s High Election Commission in Gout Shaal, west...
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Operation Moses: How Israel smuggled thousands of Ethiopian Jews out of Sudan
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 via Brussels and on to Israel using the now defunct Belgian Trans European Airways (TEA). The actual number of Jews...
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What stopped Chad’s Idriss Déby from visiting Israel before now?
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 Déby, landed in Israel for an unannounced visit to the Zionist state. The visit was shrouded in secrecy until Déby’s...
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Tunisia eight years after Bouazizi’s self-immolation
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 (MENA) region. It was on that day in 2010 that Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire after a simple quarrel...
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A homage to Libya’s legendary artist
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 Palestinian children to resist occupation by drawing. Accompanying the cartoon were couple of verses encouraging kids to reject occupation by...
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Did Libya gain anything from the Palermo conference?
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 had its show, just like the French did in Paris in May, and everybody is happy; or are they? A...
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Could Libya ever unite its army?
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, from eastern Libya, and their counterparts from the Government of National Accord (GNA), based in Tripoli. The talks ended without any...
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Four decades on, is Sadat viewed as a traitor or a hero?
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 had a major impact on the political and military situation in the Arab-Israeli conflict and, indeed, the entire Middle East. When...
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What can we expect from Italy’s conference on Libya?
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 Libyan capital, Tripoli, is only five hundred kilometres south of Sicily and little over one hour flying time from Rome....
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After six decades of independence Algeria is desperate for change
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 integral part of the French state. The first thing France did was to bring in thousands of European settlers including...
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How the world was misled into the Libyan war
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 claimed that Libya’s civilians needed protection against the brutality of President Muammar Gaddafi’s regime, amidst an uprising against the government. Eight...
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Britain should re-interpret the Balfour Declaration
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 the Group of 77+China. This important diplomatic victory for Palestinians comes at a time when the majority of UN members...
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The easiest way to shut down UNRWA is to let the refugees return home
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 December 1949 and the resolution created the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East...
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Is the UN envoy about to give up on Libya?
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 country stand on its feet again after the civil war that saw military intervention led by NATO, ex-leader Muammar Gaddafi...
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The revolution that devoured its children
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 find that du Pan could not have been more accurate. For example, very few people would recognise Abdurrahman Shalgham, Libya’s former...
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The UN is failing Libya every step of the way
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 situation in the North African country. They cover almost everything, from the arms embargo to illegal oil trading, and call...
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How long can the Libyan capital be spared destruction?
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 Brigade, which claims to be part of the Libyan Armed Forces. However, it is not clear if the brigade is...
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NATO is an accessory to the crime of forced displacement in Libya
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 for hundreds of years and never had any problem integrating into the rest of the country and were never discriminated...
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Bin Salman has done little for Saudi Arabia apart from a number of foreign policy blunders
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 mark on the usually dull foreign policy of the kingdom. Saudi foreign policy has always been a behind-the-scenes affair carried...
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Libya’s problems are complicated further by France-Italy competition
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 of Libya and North Africa. They’ve been terrific.” Conte responded by repeating his host’s words before adding that the US...
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The abandoned children of Daesh fighters in Libya
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 of foreign fighters, most of whom came from Libya’s neighbours such as Egypt, Tunisia, Sudan, Algeria and even Chad and...
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Europe cannot tackle migration without the African Union
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 asylum seekers, particularly those coming from Libya, just a short flight away. So far this year, over 100,000 migrants and...
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NATO intervention in Libya resulted in civilian deaths and an environmental disaster
Did NATO use lethal depleted uranium (DU) during its seven-month air campaign against Libya while intervening to support the groups who rebelled against the government of Muammar Gaddafi in the autumn of 2011? Were civilians killed in the round-the-clock bombardment, even though they played no role whatsoever in the...
