A Blog by the Editor of The Middle East Journal

Putting Middle Eastern Events in Cultural and Historical Context

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Sharm Summit on Scuds?

Supposedly there will be an Egyptian-Syrian-Saudi summit today at Sharm al-Sheikh (Egypt's apparent new capital since Mubarak remains ensconced there) over the story of Syria transferring Scuds to Hizbullah. No confirmation I've seen yet, and it's getting late in the day in Egypt, but the story was in a number of papers.

This Scud story has taken on legs though the US has not, officially, said they can confirm it, and not only does Syria deny it, but so does Lebanese PM Sa‘d Hariri (who is hardly pro-Syrian and is pretty much Saudi Arabia's man — or more precisely, he knows Saudi Arabia better than the country of which he is Prime Minister.)

Yesterday, Mubarak met with Mu‘ammar Qadhafi, continuing his speed-dating round of Arab summitry even though he's too ill to meet Nicolas Sarkozy. Both men, of course, have preternaturally black hair for their ages.

I'm still reserving judgment here. If it's true it's extremely provocative, but I'd like to know what the evidence is.

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