Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Dr Mustafa Fetouri
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Arab states condemned Israel publicly, but quietly moved on from Gaza
Since the launch of Israel’s devastating war on Gaza, Tel Aviv—heavily shielded by Western political pressure and strategic intimidation against any state rejecting its actions—has faced widespread regional rhetorical backlash. Almost all Arab states, including those with formal ties to Israel, have issued varying forms of public condemnation. Yet behind…
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Qatar Chooses Geography Over Ideology in Its Iran Diplomacy
Over the years, tiny Qatar has emerged as a pivotal regional mediator, deploying balanced approaches to critical crises stretching from the Gulf to the Horn of Africa with a high degree of success. More recently, Doha has had to navigate increasingly volatile conflicts closer to home, most notably the fallout…
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The ceasefire illusion: Managing genocide under the “Board of Peace”
For two years, images of dead Palestinian children, flattened neighbourhoods and starving civilians flooded television screens and social media feeds around the world. What once shocked global audiences gradually risked becoming routine. The war in Gaza — from October 2023 until the ceasefire of October 2025 — left behind extraordinary…
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Maps of a vanished world: The myth of containing Iran
Despite decades of maximum pressure, crippling sanctions, and diplomatic isolation, the geopolitical reality of the Middle East suggests a profound paradox: the more the West and its regional allies speak of “containing” Iran, the more central Tehran becomes to the regional order. From the Levant to the Gulf of Aden,…
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The anatomy of a fracture: The structural forces behind the UAE’s OPEC exit
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) was primarily established by five oil-exporting nations as a defiant response to the dominance of the global energy giants. These corporations, famously known as the “Seven Sisters,” wielded absolute control over the industry—dictating production levels and setting prices without even consulting the…
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The barometer of volatility: How the world became a hostage to Trump’s mood
Last Friday, 1st May, Slovakia’s prime minister, Robert Fico, commented to journalists that his assessment of global stability was reduced to a startlingly simple metric: the morning temperament of the American President. “Everything is under pressure, including oil prices, depending on how President Trump wakes up,” Fico remarked, noting that…
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Greater Israel: Coming soon to a neighbour near you; lines may change without notice
For seven decades, Israel has functioned not within fixed borders, but through the calculated deployment of “fluid lines.” From the 1947 Partition Plan to modern military doctrines, its geography remains a moving target—a series of unilateral impositions designed to facilitate expansion while evading international law. Effectively, Israel recognizes no definitive…
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After the ceasefire illusion: Why Gaza’s “Day After” still has no buyer?
The international community remains fixated on a phantom: Gaza’s “Day After.” While Washington, Cairo, and Doha debate elaborate governance frameworks and the “Board of Peace,” these plans share a fatal flaw—they lack a viable “buyer” on the ground. This diplomatic theatre has been eclipsed by the US-Israeli aggression against Iran…
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Progress without justice: why Saif Al-Islam Gaddafi’s killing is unlikely to reach a courtroom
Exactly 72 days have passed since the assassination of Saif Al-Islam Gaddafi. On 3 February 2026, in Zintan, a four-man hit squad eliminated the last “wild card” in Libya’s stagnant power play. The brazenness of the broad-daylight attack signalled a terrifying confidence, suggesting that the killers knew they had nothing…
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Western politicians lie, millions die: The architecture of manufactured consent
Modern ‘victory’ is prepared long before the first shot. It is paved with a sophisticated architecture of manufactured consent—where political deception and media complicity turn illegal aggressions into ‘moral necessities. To sustain a perpetual state of war, the public must be shielded from the gore of the battlefield and fed…
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The West Wing takeover: Replacing Libyan democracy with transactionalism
The shift in American priorities regarding Libya was laid bare on 18th February 2026, during the UN Security Council’s 60-day briefing. Libya observers including myself, expected the usual diplomatic platitudes from the US State Department, the microphone was instead taken by Massad Boulos. As the Senior Advisor to President Trump…
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When presidents lie, diplomacy dies: The global cost of post-truth under Trump
Lying is as much a part of statecraft as it is of human nature. History is littered with deceptions—some confessed, others concealed—employed by politicians for everything from survival to conquest. In the fragile balance of war and peace, a well-timed lie has often been dismissed as a ‘necessary evil’ meant…
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Board of Peace is a tactical smokescreen for war in Iran and Gaza
In recent days, the first publicly reported meeting between Hamas representatives and President Trump’s newly established Board of Peace (BoP) took place in Cairo. In high-stakes diplomacy, inaugural meetings are typically “get-to-know-you” sessions. However, the current landscape—marked by genocide in Gaza and a simultaneous offensive against Iran—does not allow for…
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Iran at 47: An anniversary or an obituary?
As the sun rose over Tehran yesterday, 11th February, the familiar echoes of revolutionary slogans filled Azadi Square, marking the 47th anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution not its collapse. For decades, observers have peered through the fog of sanctions and social unrest, wondering if each anniversary might be the…
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The “Donkey Flights” Project: Saving Animals While Strangling Gaza
While Gaza’s human population remains trapped behind concrete walls and fire, a curious “evacuation” is taking place. Under the banner of the “Donkey Flights Project,” an Israeli organization named Starting Over Sanctuary has been working with the IDF to collect, “rehabilitate,” and export Gaza’s donkeys to sanctuaries in France and…
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Libya and the UN mandates: A laboratory of frozen chaos
For nearly fifteen years, Libya has served as the world’s most expensive and repetitive political laboratory. Since the 2011 NATO intervention and the subsequent fall of Muammar Gaddafi, the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) has operated through a revolving door of mandates and leadership. With the January 2025…
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Will Libya’s judicial divorce bury the UNSMIL roadmap for good?
The ink on UNSMIL’s latest political roadmap is barely dry, yet the United Nations mission is already sounding the alarm over a “constitutional division” that threatens to tear the country’s last unified institution—the judiciary—asunder. The recent escalations between Tripoli and Benghazi over the Supreme Court’s legitimacy are not merely technical…
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Somaliland and the Israeli recognition: A post-mortem of Arab strategic impotence
As 2026 dawns, the Arab world finds itself staring at a strategic catastrophe that is as much a product of its own making as it is a result of foreign design. The formal recognition of the Republic of Somaliland by Israel is not merely a diplomatic shift in the Horn…
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Maduro’s ‘capture’ and the linguistic coup: Why I have a problem with the word
As a Libyan who has lived through forced “regime change” scripts in my country in 2011, I recognise this pattern and the role the media played in defending the undefendable while claiming the higher moral grounds of objectivity and fairness. My suspicion was not born of hindsight; in fact, I…
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Despite war threats, youth revive Tripoli
Despite the constant threat of conflict, Tripoli is emerging as an unlikely hub for digital innovation. Co-working spaces have appeared where bombed-out offices once stood, start-ups promise fintech solutions to cash shortages, and social media is awash with talk of a “Libyan tech moment.” For a city better known internationally…
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Libya’s dried-up banks: The daily struggle for cash
Across Libya, thousands of people queue daily at bank branches, with lines often spilling onto streets and worsening congestion in already jammed capital roads. This is not a temporary disruption but a deepening cash crisis reshaping daily life, where physical money is scarce. Citizens remain trapped in a banking system…
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Libya: One of the most corrupt countries, yet still celebrates Anti-Corruption Day!
On 9 December, Libya’s Tripoli-based Government of National Unity marked International Anti-Corruption Day with a carefully staged event that leaned more toward celebration than self-examination. At a high-profile ceremony attended by Prime Minister Abdel Hamid Dbeibah and senior officials, institutions presented a series of initiatives framed as steps toward greater…
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Split on the ground, intact on paper: Libya’s enduring limbo
More than a decade after Libya fractured into rival administrations, the country remains split in practice—but not on paper. What prevents this fragile de facto partition from solidifying into a formal division, and why have external powers quietly accommodated it? As Libya drifts between paralysis and managed dysfunction, the real…
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How Israel poisoned Gaza’s agricultural land for years to come
Israel’s campaign in Gaza has not only levelled most of the built environment — satellite analyses in 2025 show damage to the vast majority of structures across the Strip. A UN’s last October assessment report puts damaged structures at roughly 81 per cent. At the same time, Gaza’s agrifood system…