Middle East matters…
Shortly after leaving university I travelled to Syria with a friend whose family were steam enthusiasts. On their farm, they have a collection ranging from a steam engine to a steam lorry and a traction engine. In those days, there was a steam train which left the Hejaz railway station in Damascus at 7.30 am for a journey up into the mountains. The driver was called Antoine. We shared the experience of heaving coal into the furnace with him. It is one of my abiding memories.
Syria is something of a closed book as a country and few British people have gone there. However, over the years I have gone back and have come to know the country quite well.
The Persians, the Greeks, the Romans, the Umayyads, the crusaders, and the Ottomans, were just some of those who forged the identity of Syria, and left behind an extraordinary architectural heritage. The result is a culture of acceptance of religious and ethnic diversity extraordinary by international standards, let alone the Middle East.
I was for a period the Conservative spokesman for the Middle East which gave me an opportunity to look at the country from a more political viewpoint. I wrote an article about Syria in this morning’s Guardian, and its possible role in resolving some of the festering problems of the Middle East, a region where some radical re-thinking is required.
The article can be found on my website by following the link below: