A year after the overthrow of Syria’s dictator, Bashar al-Assad, the former jihadi fighter turned Syrian president Ahmed al-Sharaa addressed the Doha Forum earlier this month, deftly parrying questions about his controversial past and outlining his country’s complex journey toward a participatory, rules-based system. As I listened, it struck me that, while Europe’s role in the Middle East has been severely damaged by its immoral stance on the Gaza war and its self-inflicted exclusion from Iran nuclear diplomacy, Europeans still have a role to play when it comes to its neighbours in the eastern Mediterranean.

Europe’s world has been turned upside down by Washington’s alignment with Moscow in the Ukraine war and the transatlantic rift as the Trump administration treats Europe as an adversary. Another dimension of this upheaval is Europe’s growing irrelevance in the Middle East. Only if Europeans accept that the past is behind them can they hope to regain a constructive independent role in the region.

After the Suez crisis in 1956, which marked the end of European colonial dominance in the Middle East, Europeans resigned themselves to playing second fiddle to the US. Yet, Washington called the shots, and European governments and public opinion did not always agree – most notably during the 2003 Iraq war. Still, the US usually invited Europe to support its initiatives and, ultimately, Europe would comply.

The social contract........

© The Guardian