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Middle East Programs

Working with our allies and partners in Europe and the wider Middle East to protect US interests, build peace and security, and unlock the human potential of the region.

Libya

Content

MENASource

Feb 6, 2014

Is the Gulf Rethinking Egypt’s Presidency?

By MENASource

Gulf countries have thrown their weight enthusiastically behind Egypt’s military-backed government, but recent signals indicate hesitation over the new Egyptian Field Marshal General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s ascension to the presidency.

North Africa

MENASource

Feb 5, 2014

Egypt’s Presidential Elections: From the Outside Looking In [Part II]

By Nader Bakkar

Despite personal convictions about holding presidential elections first, mentioned in the first part of this article, the nomination of two military candidates, in Minister of Defense Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and former Chief of Staff Sami Anan, has become a foregone conclusion. (At least at the time of writing.) While some candidates may already have garnered […]

Elections
North Africa

MENASource

Feb 5, 2014

Dispatch: Deepening Polarization in Libya, No Agreement in Sight

By Karim Mezran

More than two years since Libyans and international forces overthrew longtime dictator Muammar Qaddafi, Libya suffers from fragmentation as competing forces vie to fill the power vacuum. An emerging and worrying trend of political blocs within the General National Congress (GNC) forming alliances with certain militia groups—creating new and divisive power centers—threatens to derail the […]

Libya

MENASource

Feb 4, 2014

What Libya Can Learn from Yemen

By Danya Greenfield

Libya-watchers should be encouraged by the initiation of the country’s National Dialogue last month and an election date set for the constitution-making body on February 20, both of which give much-needed positive momentum to lift Libya out of the cycle of violence and recrimination.

Libya
Yemen

MENASource

Feb 4, 2014

Egypt’s Silenced Youth

By Rana Muhammad Taha

A look at Tahrir Square on January 25 during the 2011 uprising’s third anniversary would leave one wondering where all the younger protesters who led the movement have gone. Not only was the square packed with army supporters and devoid of any slogans referencing the original revolutionary demands, it included demonstrators holding posters of ousted […]

North Africa
Libyan bomb armed with chemical agent

NATOSource

Feb 3, 2014

US and Partners Complete Destruction of Libya’s Chemical Weapons

By Eric Schmitt, New York Times

Even as the international effort to destroy Syria’s vast chemical weapons stockpile lags behind schedule, a similar American-backed campaign carried out under a cloak of secrecy ended successfully last week in another strife-torn country, Libya.

Libya
United States and Canada

MENASource

Feb 3, 2014

Libya: From Discordant Discourse To National Dialogue

By Lara Talverdian and Katherina Pruegel

Libya’s seemingly insurmountable challenges—from deteriorating security to a hampered economy to political paralysis—stem from the reality that, within Libya, there is no national conversation about the future of the country. Instead, there are multiple ongoing conversations, as various stakeholders assert (and in some cases forcefully impose) their niche demands in the absence of a shared […]

Libya

MENASource

Jan 31, 2014

The Port Said Massacre: A Photo Essay

By Jonathan Rashad

On February 1 2012, the Port Said stadium witnessed one of the biggest catastrophes in Egypt’s recent history, in a match between Cairo’s al-Ahly club and Port Said’s al-Masry club. Under the auspices of the police, seventy-two football fans from al-Ahly’s biggest fan club ‘Ultras Ahlawy’ were slaughtered in the stadium by football fans from […]

North Africa
Admiral Edouard Guillaud

NATOSource

Jan 30, 2014

France Dismisses Military Call for Intervention in Libya

By Libya Herald and AP

From Libya Herald:  France has firmly rebuffed suggestions that it should join an international force and intervene in the south of Libya to end instability there and prevent it becoming a regional base for Al Qaeda.

France
Libya

New Atlanticist

Jan 30, 2014

Obama Skirts Egypt in State of the Union Address

By Barbara Slavin

In his State of the Union address, President Barack Obama devoted most of a limited section on foreign policy to the Middle East but uttered not one word about that region’s most populous and influential nation: Egypt.

Middle East
North Africa

Experts