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Thursday 16th February 2006 AD
A FAST MOVING CAMEL
Damascus, the capital of Syria, is considered to be the world's oldest continuously inhabited city. Â"damashaqÂ" means 'fast-moving camel', but, now days there seems nothing much 'fast-moving' on its hot, dusty and ancient streets. It is a place full of rich history and untold stories (1).
"Perhaps we could get on with the business at hand: Bombing Syria back to the stone age and then permanently disarming Iran", writes popular US columnist Ann Coulter today. Reading this, I wondered if Ann had ever visited and walked the streets of the country she talked of? (2)
Over a recent coffee in downtown Beirut, one of our Middle East insiders asked me, "Philip, what do Iraq, Iran, and Syria have in common?" A good question!, given centuries of struggles.
Between 1998 and 2001, Saddam Hussein spoke about, attempted to gain support for, and even-outright demanded payment for Iraqi oil in EURO's and, as we know, on March 20th 2003, US tanks rolled across the desert sands of Iraq.
In March this year, Iran plans to launch the 'Iranian Oil Bourse', a EURO based oil-trading system that it hopes will attract some oil settlement business to Tehran. Considered at best an ambitious quest, its launch coincides with increasing talk of military action against Iran by the US.
Then in yesterdays Reuters Newswire : "SYRIA switches to EURO amid confrontation with US"
Mon Feb 13, 2006 10:31 AM ET : Syria has switched all of the state's foreign currency transactions to EURO from dollars amid a political
confrontation with the United States, the head of state-owned Commercial Bank of Syria said on Monday. "This is a precaution. We are talking
about billions of dollars," Duraid Durgham told Reuters.(3)
"It looks like a kind of pre-emptive action aimed at making their foreign assets safer, preventing them from getting frozen in case of any conflict," commented one Middle East news correspondent.
It would appear that Iran and Syria understand, as did Iraq, a struggle with the US can be waged monetarily, by simply switching their foreign currency reserves, and the currency in which they paid, from Dollars to Euro.
Was the defense of the Dollar a partial motivation for the US commencing military operations in Iraq? Will it wage war in Iran for the same reason? If so, should Syria be added to the list? How far can the world's greatest military machine be stretched? Who knows, maybe only time will fully address these questions.
For us, we can only dig into the past and ponder the questions: Of the great empires before us that waged wars on foreign soil, what did they ultimately fight for? Economically, did they benefit from sending their armies far from home to defend their money, borders and markets?
Sincerely - Philip Judge pjudge@anglofareast.com
(1) In 1800B.C. the Assyrian King, Shamshi-Adad I established his capital at Shubat Enlil, known today as Tell Leilan, in north-east Syria.
The modern state of Syria was not established until 1946, after the Second World War, but it is a land which has been inhabited since ancient times. Archaeologists have unearthed evidence of habitation dating back to about 5000B.C.
Greater Syria, a land area incorporating Lebanon, Israel, Jordan and present-day Syria, was the site of much conflict and conquest throughout the days of the Ancient World. This conflict has continued throughout the Middle Ages and into modern times.
Ancient Syria has been successively ruled by the Egyptians, Babylonians, Hittites, Chaldeans and Persians. It became part of Alexander the Great's
empire in 333B.C., when one Alexander's generals founded the city of Antioch as its capital. Struggles between the Seleucids and the Ptolemies
of Egypt followed, until 64B.C., when Syria became a province of the
Roman Empire.
Following the decline and collapse of the Romans and the division of the empire in the 4th century A.D., Syria became a Byzantine province and remained so for almost two and a half centuries.
(3) The bank still dominates the Syrian market although private banks have been allowed to set up in the last few years, has also stopped
dealing with dollars in the international foreign exchange flows of private clients. The United States has been at the forefront of international
pressure on Syria for its alleged role in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri a year ago. Damascus denies
involvement in the killing.