Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Dr Mustafa Fetouri
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A breakthrough in Libya, or just too much ado about nothing?
Slovakia’s former Foreign Minister Jan Kubis was approved as the United Nations’ new Libya envoy almost one year after the last envoy, Ghassan Salame, resigned. He is number seven in almost ten years and will also head the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL). In a statement announcing the...
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The Israelisation of US foreign policy is hard to reverse
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 elected, is likely to have already made certain pledges favouring Israel during their election campaign. As soon as that president is...
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This is what President Biden will not do in the Middle East
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 upset allies, angered friends and, sometimes, benefitted foes. However, amending foreign policy in the bitterly divided US will neither be...
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Can the EU ever have boots on the ground in Libya?
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 embargo. The two Libyan warring sides signed a ceasefire in Geneva on 23 October, but the agreement is under pressure...
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Is Cairo trying to counter Ankara by warming up to Tripoli?
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) – Libya’s only United Nations (UN)-recognised government in the war-torn country. The two-day visit focused on technical issues like the...
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Is Libya heading in the wrong direction, with potential for another war?
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 permanent ceasefire just signed in Geneva between Libya’s two competing authorities. The document called for several requirements to be met...
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A new indictment is likely for the Lockerbie bombing, maybe two
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 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, on 21 December, 1988. The suspect was described in US media reports last week as explosives...
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Human rights take a back seat as Cairo-Paris axis strengthens
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 list of 17 honours excludes his most recent – France’s Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour, which French President...
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Algeria’s guessing game about its president continues
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 his duties during such a difficult time for the country? Is he still in Germany, where he arrived for medical...
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To preserve a 31-year-old lie, Britain is ready to tarnish Scottish justice
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 Justice General Colin Sutherland, Scotland’s most senior judge, said that the panel will deliver its written opinion “as soon as...
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Libya’s bribery has marred political dialogue
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 Williams, opened a virtual consultation session in which the 75-member group intended to discuss the criteria for higher officeholders. However, the...
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Another woman has been murdered in Libya, but no one is being held accountable
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 in one of the city’s busiest streets. According to Benghazi’s security directorate, a group of “unidentified masked men” first tried...
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What can Libya expect with Biden in the White House?
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 a good time, therefore, to try to preview what his foreign policy towards the Middle East and North Africa (MENA)...
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Sudan has normalised relations with Israel, and Khartoum is to blame
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 leader, Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, met secretly with Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu in the home of the Ugandan president in Entebbe. That...
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Is there a light at the end of the tunnel for Libya?
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 a series of meetings starting last month, is the 5+5 Joint Military Commission meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, which ended with the...
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Why do Libyan politicians refrain from criticising NATO’s war on their country, despite civilian deaths?
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 single Libyan politician went on the record to criticise NATO’s killing of civilians and the destruction of Libya. Former US President...
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Three women, loads of lies and the destruction of Libya
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. Demonstrations broke out in some Libyan cities against the government of late Muammar Gaddafi in February 2011, in what became...
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How the European Union betrayed Libya, and itself too
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 representatives of the Berlin Conference countries that took part in the first meeting on Libya hosted by Germany last January. What...
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Why do Arab leaders respect treaties with others but not between themselves?
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 had been taking place. Bahrain has followed suit with indecent haste. The first Arab-Israeli peace deal took place in 1979 with...
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Is the battle to replace General Khalifa Haftar already on?
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 Khalifa Haftar’s Libyan National Army (LNA). Since the LNA lost its offensive to take Tripoli last June, when it retreated...
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Why is the GNA defunding the Lockerbie case despite it being close to a verdict of innocence?
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 protesting his innocence until his last breath. The Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) allowed the family to proceed with...
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Nine years after NATO reshaped their country, Libyans are embracing a ceasefire
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 good to be true. In a statement on Facebook, the head of the Government of National Accord (GNA), Fayez Al-Sarraj,...
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Is France isolated by EU countries due to its Libya-Turkey policy?
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 August, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu urged that France should refrain from taking any steps that “escalate tensions”. A day...
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The curse of the tent: Gaddafi warned us, but we didn’t listen
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 in his country today. In some instances, his predictions were so vivid in detail, as if he was watching them...