North Africa

Sixth Anniversary of the US-Libya Intervention: A Model for the Future

By Nedal M. Swehli

Six years ago on March 19, 2011, the United States started its military intervention in Libya. In 2009, President Obama, in his inauguration speech, addressed the world’s dictators asking them to “unclench their fist” and said  that “America is a friend of each nation and every man, woman and child who seeks a future of peace […]

Russian Policy toward Libya: The Egyptian Factor

By Mark N. Katz

A great deal of media attention to Russian involvement in Libya arose as a result of a March 14 Reuters report that Moscow “appears to have deployed special forces to an airbase in western Egypt near the border with Libya.” These forces, reportedly consisting of a 22-man unit, deployed to support General Khalifa Haftar, who […]

Libya, The Time to Avoid Escalation is Now

By Karim Mezran and Mattia Toaldo

Libya risks a new escalation and a deepening of the division between the eastern region under General Khalifa Haftar and the rest of the country nominally under the control of an ever-weaker UN-backed government headed by Fayez Serraj. On March 3, fighting started in the Oil Crescent, the part of Libya’s central coast where 60 […]

Egypt Appoints Ambassador to NATO

By NATO, State Information Service

From Jens Stoltenberg, NATO:  I welcome very much that Egypt is establishing a mission to NATO and will appoint an ambassador to NATO.

Priorities for Ending the Libyan Crisis

By Emily Burchfield

Former US Special Envoy to Libya, Ambassador Jonathan Winer spoke at a panel event on Libya at the Rafik Hariri Center on March 9, 2016 and gave a short interview afterwards describing the priorities for ending the Libyan crisis. Below is a summary of his comments and the Facebook Live interview. 

Is Libya’s “Skhirat” Agreement Really Dead?

By Karim Mezran

The Benghazi Defense Brigades (BDB)’s recent successful offensive conducted against the Libyan National Army (LNA) in the Gulf of Sidra—in which it seized the oil ports and terminals of Ras Lanuf and Es Sider—leads one to consider its effects on the Skhirat agreement. This is the agreement that produced the Libyan Political Agreement (LPA) and […]

Negotiating Peace in Libya

In order to end the civil war in Libya, those competing for power must meet, negotiate, and establish a path to free and fair elections early in 2018, Jonathan Winer, a former US State Department special envoy for Libya, said at the Atlantic Council on March 9. The three factions claiming sole legitimacy and authority […]