Veteran Middle East correspondent Robert Fisk dies aged 74

Robert Fisk, a veteran Middle East correspondent for The Independent based in Beirut, has died at the age 74 after suffering a suspected stroke, in the Irish capital, Dublin.

“The world of journalism and informed commentary on the Middle East has lost one of its finest commentators,” Ireland’s President Michael D Higgins said in a statement on the death of Robert Fisk.

The New York Times described Fisk in 2005 as “probably the most famous foreign correspondent in Britain.”

Also, be was one of the few western reporters to interview al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

Fisk has lived in the Arab world for more than 40 years, covering the war in Syria and Lebanon, five Israeli invasions, the Iran-Iraq war, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the Algerian civil war, Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait, the Bosnian and Kosovo wars, the American invasion and occupation of Iraq and the 2011 Arab revolutions.

His articles about the US and ‘Israel’ and Western foreign policy in the Middle East were considered highly controversial.

He was known for his support to the Palestinians. He said the Trump administration’s acceptance in 2019 of Israel’s annexation of the occupied Syrian Golan Heights showed Israel had effectively annexed the US , and repeatedly accused Israel of committing war crimes against the Palestinians.

Related Articles

Back to top button