Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Dr Mustafa Fetouri
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Can Arab oil once again be leveraged to support Arab causes?
World oil supplies have been at the centre of every major crisis in the Middle East for the last seven decades. Having nearly 67 per cent of world oil reserves, the region has dominated every major country’s foreign policy. The recent crisis between Iran on one side and Saudi Arabia,...
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Can Germany succeed in tackling the Libya crisis?
Germany is to host an international meeting on Libya sometime before the end of October – some say before the end of the year. This is the latest attempt to find a solution to the conflict in the North African country that has been beset by unrest for almost...
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Why are the Algerians unable to find a way forward?
Since they took to the streets in their thousands earlier this year, the people of Algeria have achieved very little. Their demands, meanwhile, have multiplied despite being, occasionally, unattainable goals. When they first came out on 22 February, thousands of protesters wanted just one thing: free elections which the...
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How two political outsiders defied all predictions in Tunisia’s second free elections
Now it is official; Kais Saied, hardly known outside the university walls made it to the second round of presidential elections in Tunisia with 18.4 per cent of the votes according to the country’s Independent High Authority for Elections, known by its French acronym ISIE. The second candidate to...
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America’s Middle East policy blunders lead inevitably to failure
Is the United States withdrawing from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, or it is just missing the magical focal policy that it occasionally had in years gone by? No matter which conclusion is reached, it implies that America’s MENA policy in recent years is nothing but...
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Is Trump helping or harming Israel?
Many believe United States President Donald Trump is helping Israel in an unprecedented way and the son of the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Natanyahu, Yair, is one of them. Last June he described Trump as “Rockstar in Israel” and “the best friend that Israel and the Jewish people have...
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Libya gave the world a unique treaty which should be copied by all ex-colonial powers
Friday 30 August is the 11th anniversary of the treaty signed by Libya and Italy on Friendship, Partnership and Cooperation bringing to an end a long, turbulent chapter of relations between Rome and its former colony. It is not just another pact between two countries; it is an exceptional...
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Where are the local peace initiatives for Libya?
It is notable that, in Libya’s current violence, there is an absence of serious local peace initiatives. In previous conflicts across the war-ravaged country, local tribal leaders and dignitaries would appeal for peace and launch their own conciliation efforts to bring about, at the very least, a ceasefire. In January,...
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Libyans are divided over kidnapped MP
The last time that Siham Sergiwa spoke publicly was from her Benghazi home on 16 July, during a TV talk show. The following morning, she disappeared, apparently without trace. Speaking by phone, Sergiwa voiced her opposition to the war on Tripoli and called for a ceasefire and a unity government;...
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8 years ago NATO killed my family in their sleep
Eight years ago, NATO and its partners, killed nearly 200 Libyan civilians across the North African country. Eight years on, no one has been held accountable. Neither NATO nor its partners gave any explanation or offered an apology let alone compensation while the families of those killed still reel...
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Essebsi was hardly the ‘saviour’ of Tunisia at all
Tunisia’s President Beji Caïd Essebsi died last Thursday in a military hospital in the capital Tunis. He was 92 years old and had been in ill health. Within hours, the parliamentary Speaker was sworn in as Interim President until an election can be held, in line with the Tunisian...
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Life in besieged Tripoli
On 4 April, the Libyan National Army led by Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar reached the outskirts of Tripoli, Libya’s capital. Unable to proceed, the LNA effectively laid siege to the city in the hope that it could take it from the Government of National Accord. To date, neither side...
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8 years, 6 envoys; what more can the UN do to save Libya?
Between May 2011 and today the United Nations has appointed six special representatives to Libya, from five different nationalities, each serving less than two years. The present envoy, Ghassan Salame, is a respected Lebanese academic, former minister and experienced UN operative in both Iraq and Myanmar. His appointment brought...
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The dilemma of captured Daesh fighters and abandoned children? Who is responsible?
Donald Rumsfeld, the notorious former United States defence secretary, in describing his endless war on terror, once said: “We need a new vocabulary.” How would Rumsfeld, an advocate of the vague and sometimes absurd term “enemy combatant”, describe Daesh fighters, women and children trapped in legal limbo in Syria,...
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Let down by the world, migrants are caught in Libya’s crossfire
At least 44 migrants were killed in Tajoura’s detention centre and more than 140 others were wounded when a rocket hit it in the early hours yesterday. The Tajoura Centre for Combating Illegal Migration, about 22 kilometres east of the Libyan capital Tripoli, is one of several detention centres...
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The new Libya has forgotten its colonial past
In 1970, a few months after he took power, the late Muammar Gaddafi expelled all foreign military bases from the country. Between the end of World War II and 1969, when the young Gaddafi toppled King Idris, Libya was home to military bases of the major powers including the...
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Haftar has bet his career on taking Tripoli, but victory won’t mean a democratic Libya
When commander Khalifa Haftar ordered forces loyal to him, known as the Libyan National Army (LNA), to march on the capital Tripoli on 4 April, he did not set a time frame for this operation. Most likely he did not have any precise idea of how long such an...
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Everybody says that there is no military solution in Libya, but they are all wrong
For the past eight years, almost every regional and international power, as well as the UN, has been agreed that the solution for Libya is not military but political. An agreement, we are told, can only come about through inclusive negotiations among Libyans. They are all wrong. The champions of...
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Is Haftar helping Daesh return to Libya?
It is now 62 days since the Libyan National Army (LNA), commanded by Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, begin its march on the capital Tripoli. During that time Daesh has carried out at least four attacks in LNA controlled areas across the country. Capitalising on chaos and the security void...
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How Saudi Arabia is losing the war in Yemen
Is Saudi Arabia losing its military campaign in Yemen despite being the stronger party enjoying the support of its many allies? The Saudi-led coalition includes countries like Egypt, Bahrain, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Sudan, Jordan and Morocco, as well as Qatar before it fell out with Riyadh. Major...
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Paul Bremer’s legacy in Iraq is being expanded across the Arab World
Today marks 16 years since Paul Bremer, the former American diplomat, made history three times in the space of one month. First he was appointed head of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), the administration that ran Iraq after it was occupied by the United States in April 2003. This...
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Which Brotherhood does Trump want to designate as a ‘terrorist organisation’?
Ever since late 2017 there have been behind-the-scenes discussions in the White House about designating the Muslim Brotherhood as a “terrorist organisation”. On 30 April, administration officials confirmed that it is only a matter of time before the movement is indeed designated. This will have legal ramifications and repercussions....
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Who’s fighting their proxy wars in Libya?
Are there any countries that are meddling in the internal affairs of Libya making its internal conflicts more of a proxy war rather than domestic internal conflict? Do those countries help fan the flames that have kept igniting in the country over the last eight years? Why can the...
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Is Haftar right in claiming there are terrorists and militias in Tripoli?
Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, commander of the Libyan National Army (LNA), has long claimed that terrorists and rogue militias are controlling the capital Tripoli, placing his campaign as part of the international “war on terror”. In launching his attack on 4 April, his spokesperson repeatedly said that “terrorists” are...