Readers of this blog will know that I generally steer clear of writing about politics on my trip because that is normally all you get from the Middle East. However there are times when to ignore it would be both futile and pollyannish; one thing obvious as I tramp over mounds of ruins of yet another of the myriad fallen civilizations in this part of the world, is that politics over millennia IS the Middle East and the 21st century is no different.
I have been in Syria for three weeks and it has been an interesting time politically. People are talking about Syria and Iran finally getting involved in trying to help the United States get out of its self-inflicted quagmire in Iraq, and after a visit by Syrian foreign minister to Iraq, the two countries have decided to re-open diplomatic relations for the first time since 1982. This alone is fairly exciting stuff. But there is more - Iran invited both the Syrian and Iraqi leaders to a meeting in Iran this weekend to discuss the Iraqi situation. (The Iraqi leader cannot go now as the airport is closed due to the complete disintegration of security in Baghdad.) It is by now irrelevant if the situation in Iraq is called ‘civil war’ or not - with October the bloodiest month in terms of Iraqi deaths since the US-led invasion, and the death of over 200 people in Sadr City a couple of days ago, what difference does it make to Iraqis what we call it?
