Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Dr Mustafa Fetouri
-
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 and…
-
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…
-
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…
-
An Arab perspective on Iran’s Islamic Revolution at 40
What started as series of public demonstrations and strikes across Iran nearly two years earlier peaked on 11 February, 1979, with the Islamic Revolution of Iran ending decades of oppressive monarchy under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. The Islamic Republic of Iran was born, shaking the region and humiliating the United…
-
How one Libyan man is helping illegal migrants
For the last eight years, my home town of Bani Walid, 180 kilometres southwest of Tripoli, has become one of the favourite route for people traffickers and illegal migrants heading north towards the Mediterranean coast on their dangerous trip to Europe by sea. The route extends from the southern Libyan…
-
UN envoy to Libya is taking credit for Libya’s hard earned successes
In his last report to the UN Security Council, the United Nations’ special envoy to Libya, Ghassan Salame, sounded both optimistic and pessimistic. He tried to paint a realistic picture of the situation in the conflict ridden oil rich country but not without a dose of exaggeration and misleading characterisation…
-
Does Libya have its own Al-Sisi in the making?
The town of Harawah lies around 80 kilometres east of Sirte and nearly 550 kilometres east of Tripoli. I drove there earlier this month to see the most westerly territory in Libya controlled by the Libyan National Army (LNA), led by former General, now Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar. No one…