Month: January 2015
Born Dead: Essid’s Cabinet Fails to Convince
On Friday 23 January, Tunisian PM Habib Essid announced the composition of his government; but by the weekend, it became clear that Essid’s cabinet would not survive a vote of confidence at the National Assembly. First came Ennahdha’s decision not...
Libya’s Geneva 2 Dialogue: “Don’t Expect Immediate Results”
On Sunday 25 January, UNSMIL announced that talks among Libyan crisis stakeholders would take place on Monday in preparation for a second round of dialogue on Wednesday. Leon’s press release indicated that this second round would convene representatives of local...
UNAMSIL’s Libyan Dialogue: Tripoli-Geneva via Istanbul and Back?
The first round of a Libyan dialogue kicked off last Wednesday, 12 January, under the auspices of Bernardino Leon’s UNAMSIL. After a round of two days of talks, Leon understood that this new initiative would see the same unfruitful fate...
Ghadamas II Political Dialogue
Echoes from Tripoli let believe that a UNSMIL’s new round of political dialogue between the GNC and Tobruk’s House of Representatives (HoR) would take place on Wednesday 11 February in Ghadamas, southwest of Tripoli, on border with Algeria. On the...
Presidential Elections: Revolution, Counter-Revolution, and the Second Wave
The election of Beji Caid Essebsi President of Tunisia in last December’s elections motivated different readings among analysts. For some of them Essebsi’s election symbolised the “final phase of a counter-revolution that closed the Arab Spring parenthesis that was opened...
Libyan Crisis Chess Game
With no surprise, UNMSIL’s Libyan dialogue conference on 5 January did not take place. Hafter’s airstrikes on Misrata’s airport and port ended the divisions among Misrata leadership on whether or not to join Bernardino Leon’s dialogue meeting between Tripoli’s GNC...
Divisions within Nidaa Tounes Delay Formation of New Government
Almost two weeks after his designation to form a new government, Habib Essid has not yet managed to reconcile all key actors and stakeholders to be able to do so. The Popular Front, with 16 seats in the parliament, had...
Dialogue in Libya: All Roads Lead to Tripoli’s GNC?
UNSMIL’s Bernardino Leon announced that political dialogue between the GNC and the Tobruk House of Representatives (HoR) would take place inside Libya within few days. The announcement was made at the GNC headquarters on 2 February, following Leon’s meeting with...