Tuesday July 6, 2010

I've Been Thinking:

Syrian President Bashar Assad is visiting Spain. While there Assad offered an important insight into the Middle East.

According to Assad, if Turkey and Israel do not mend their relations then "Turkey would find it difficult to continue its role as mediator."

The Syrian president is absolutely correct. Turkey has taken itself out of the game as a peace mediator.

More importantly, the region is now more unstable because Turkey is no longer a power that can exercise influence in both directions. Turkey cannot influence Israel and Turkey has no control over any Islamic leader.

Turkey has effectively upset the entire applecart of the Middle East and Syria realizes that the region has lost a very important tool for leverage in any future negotiations.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=halpern%2C+micah