I met John Lennon and Yoko Ono on Christmas Eve in 1969. I joined them and a small group of local peace activists in a Christmas fast for world peace in front of Rochester Cathedral in England, a short walk from where I lived with my family in Chatham Dockyard. I was 15 years old,…
Africa’s known for its internal divisions and predisposition to conflicts, especially those which are encouraged from abroad, and it’s with this in mind that there are plenty of reasons to worry about its stability in 2018. Proceeding from North Africa to Southern Africa, Egypt is regularly attacked by terrorists in the Sinai and elsewhere, posing…
On 18 December, the Supreme Commander of the Libyan Army, Marshal Khalifa Haftar announced the expiration of the Skhirat Agreement on the subject of national reconciliation, signed on 17 Dec 2015 under the auspices of the United Nations. One of its participants was the government of Fayez al-Sarraj, which lacked support from Parliament and the Libyan…
ISIS’ so-called caliphate is, by all accounts, crumbling in Iraq and Syria as Russia, Syria, Hezbollah and Iraq have all claimed victory over the terror group. While this may mean that the ISIS’ stranglehold over significant portions of territory in these two countries may, in the days to come, be effectively ended, it doesn’t necessarily…
When a fortnight ago the Kremlin publicly ordered the Foreign Ministry to negotiate a deal for Russia’s air force to use Egyptian military bases, I conceded I did not know what this was about. I entertained the possibility it was a prelude to Russia’s military involvement in Libya, but then I said I don’t see…
If the struggle to liberate Aleppo was Syria’s Stalingrad, the operation to liberate Idlib, just begun, is its Battle of Berlin. At stake in what promises to be the last major military operation undertaken by government forces and its allies is the complete extirpation of Salafi-jihadi groups and their allies from Syrian territory. As such, when it has been accomplished…
