I’m in the Middle East, albeit in a revolution-free corner. And from the Royal Meridien hotel in Abu Dhabi it is hard to know what the region is going through. But a number of points have already come through from my conversations.
First, there is an obsession about US power. The government-controlled media are busy saying that US influence is waning but every conversation focuses on what the US will or will not do. The US is clearly present and although its power may be changing, it is doing so more slowly than the newspaper headlines would have you believe.
The second thing is this: the Middle East will never be the same again. Even if the revolutions fail, or falter, the region is being transformed and no corner, however rich, is immune. The liberal values and generally peaceful tactics of the protesters have made it impossible for the region’s leaders to claim that it’s all a foreign plot.
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