Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Dr Mustafa Fetouri
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Why Libyans want the UK ambassador expelled
On 24 December, the United Kingdom embassy in Tripoli, Libya, issued a statement on its Twitter and Facebook accounts that, at first, looked like a routine statement on developments in the country—something major countries’ embassies, including the United States, used to do. Not this time. A few moments later,...
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The visit to Ankara by Libyan parliamentarians looks like shifting political alliances
A delegation of seven Libyan parliamentarians, headed by deputy speaker Fawzi Al-Nuwairi, visited Ankara last week and met with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in what is seen as a breakthrough in relations between Turkey and Libya’s parliament. The visit is the first of its kind after years of animosity....
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Can the Iron Lady salvage Libya’s elections?
On 6 December, the United Nations Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, appointed Stephanie Williams, nicknamed the “Iron Lady” by some Libyan politicians, as his Special Advisor on Libya, SASG on Libya. Her appointment comes at a very critical moment in the Libyan stalled democratic process, with uncertainty looming over the...
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Could Libya really have democratic and transparent elections?
If Libyans really go to the polls as planned, on 24 December, it will be a moment of history-making and a new reality in the conflict ravaged country. The North African country never had a president before, let alone running one in which the president is directly elected by...
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Tunisia's half coup and the idea of a counter-revolution
Tunisia’s President, Kais Saied, vehemently denies what he did in Tunisia is, literally, a constitutional coup, as his adversaries claim. The President might feel comfortable if we describe his July power grab as “half a coup” since the constitution, he says, is still there however ignored in disputable ways! Every...
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Why is Libya’s presidential race so overcrowded?
It has been announced that 98 individuals, including two women, submitted their applications to contest Libya’s 24 December presidential election. The list included a militia-linked suspect, Libya’s top comedian, former and current parliamentary speakers and prime ministers, a former senior official from the Gaddafi era, a couple of businessmen...
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Paris Conference on Libya: dodging the hard questions while ignoring the easy ones
Paris has just hosted yet another international conference on Libya that ended with a very long communiqué expressing support for the country’s planned 24 December elections and threatening with sanctions those who might attempt to spoil the polls in any way. The gathering that brought together over 30 countries and...
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Outrage over her Lockerbie comment puts Libya’s foreign minister on the spot
Libya’s much-hailed first female Foreign Minister, Najla Mangoush, has been suspended by the country’s Presidential Council. The decision on 6 November concluded that the minister had been “acting unilaterally and without consultation” with the council as required by the political agreement of 9 November 2020 that divided authority between...
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What has Libya’s uncelebrated ceasefire achieved?
We have just passed the first anniversary of the Libyan ceasefire agreement signed in Geneva last October, which brought to an end one of the bloodiest episodes in the country’s recent history, apart from an occasional flare up here and there. The agreement, although not yet fully implemented, was...
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The Libya Stabilisation Conference was all talk and little substance
The Libya Stabilisation Conference convened in Tripoli on 21 October without any clear agenda or specific objectives. As a result, there were very few realistic expectations. The one-day event brought together representatives of over 30 countries as well as the African Union, the European Union, the Arab League and...
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Three Nobel Peace Prizes to three unworthy individuals
When former United States president, Barack Obama, was awarded the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize in 2009, he was in office less than a year. The Nobel Committee, in its statement, said that the first black president deserved it because, under him, “multilateral diplomacy has regained a central position, with...
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Islamophobia and colonial brutalities will always poison Algerian-French ties
Behind the recent flare-up of tensions between France and Algeria exists a troubled past, in which causes for such tension have been lurking for decades, just awaiting some trigger such as an awkward diplomatic twist or an inappropriate political comment. One such twist came on 29 September, when Paris...
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Tunisia’s frozen politics could lead to chaos
Tunisia’s President Kais Saied has appointed Najla Bouden Romdhane as the country’s first female prime minister. Bouden is supposed to form a new government as soon as possible. Saied has emphasised the priority: “Eliminate the corruption and chaos that has pervaded the country.” Bouden is a little-known geophysics engineer; an...
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Libya’s government has many pressing concerns, but it is financing weddings
Libya’s Government of National Unity (GNU), led by Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh, has lost a parliamentary vote of confidence and suddenly found itself cast in the role of a caretaker government. In a controversial vote, 89 parliamentarians, of 113 present, voted to withdraw their support for the GNU....
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Presidential election law and withdrawal of confidence in government are trouble triggers in Libya
On 9 September, Libya’s Tobruk-based parliament passed law Number 1, 2021, for the direct election of president of the country and outlining his duties and responsibilities. The 77 articles law specified conditions for eligibility for the top job and what powers the president will have. The issue of directly electing...
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How two leaders, decades apart, envisioned the African Union
Last week marked 22 years since the African Union (AU) replaced the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) which was created in 1963 with only 32 members. The other 22 countries in Africa were, at the time, still to gain independence from Britain, France, Portugal and Spain. South Africa was...
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Is Tunisia’s president putting the cart before the horse?
Less than a month after Tunisia’s President Kais Saied had assumed sweeping executive powers, dismissed the government, suspended parliament and lifted the immunity of its members, and took over the office of public prosecutor, his Twitter account announced on 24 August that he was extending his emergency measures indefinitely....
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After Afghanistan, US allies must feel a sense of abandonment
Do any of America’s allies still trust its commitment to them? After the withdrawal from Afghanistan, they must feel a sense of abandonment by the US. Critics point out that what happened in Afghanistan was decided by Washington without even consulting its allies. The former Afghan government of President Ashraf...
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Are the people of Libya ready to decide their future?
Almost all political and social debates about Libya nowadays are centred on the presidential and legislative elections scheduled to be held on 24 December. Ever since the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum (LPDF) agreed the date, the issue has dominated the lives of ordinary Libyans. There is an overwhelming demand that...
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What is Haftar up to in Libya?
What, I wonder, is Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar up to in Libya? The simple answer to that complex question is that he still wants to rule the country. The next question is: how he is going to do it? Over the past seven years Haftar has tried the armed route...
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Israel should be expelled from the African Union
Moussa Faki Mahamat, the Chairman of the Commission of the African Union (AU), quietly and unceremoniously granted Israel observer status within the organisation on 22 July. The move surprised and shocked many AU member states who viewed it as a serious violation of the organisation’s charter and founding principles....
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The fight over Tunisia’s identity is at the heart of the current crisis
When Tunisia’s President Kais Saied took over executive powers on 25 July, the former constitutional law professor justified his action by pointing out the failure of successive governments due to political bickering that has paralysed the country. A parliament divided since it was elected in 2019 made it impossible...
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Blaming Ennahda for Tunisia’s problems is misleading and won't solve the crisis
Tunisia’s President Kais Saied surprised everybody, inside the country and outside, by his announcement on Sunday to suspend the parliament, annul MPs immunity, dismiss the prime minister and take a “supervisory” role over the public prosecution service. In doing so he cited Article 80 of the country’s constitution which,...
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The curse of the Oslo Accords that made the PLO a guard on mayoral duties
“I wish I could wake up one day and find that Gaza has sunk into the sea.” That quote is attributed to Israel’s late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. He is reported to have expressed that wish in 1992, as the First Palestinian Intifada neared its end. Hamas was born...