Even America's Foes Want to Talk

BEIRUT-- One of the most fascinating current developments to watch around the world is how countries react to the new Obama administration in the United States -- especially critics or foes of the U.S. like Syria, Iran and Hamas, who seem to be reaching out to Washington. This tells us much about both sides of this equation.

This month the Iranian and Syrian leaderships have indicated their desire to turn a new page in relations with the United States. The Syrian president explicitly stated that he will only negotiate peace with Israel one day if the U.S. is deeply involved in mediation and post-peace security arrangements. The Iranian president and other officials similarly have spoken in public about their willingness to negotiate with the U.S. on all outstanding issues, if such encounters occur in an environment of respect and rationality, rather than threats and ultimatums.

The most interesting example is the letter that Hamas sent to the Obama administration last week, via a visiting U.S. senator. We do not know the contents of the letter, but presumably it can be seen as a gesture to open a dialogue on American-Palestinian relations. It is no accident that the letter was sent to the United States in the context of a respected American politician who visited Gaza to see first-hand the scale of the destruction from the recent Israeli assault.

What should we make of the Syrian, Iranian and Hamas gestures and statements that speak of possible normal relations with the United States? One possible interpretation is that these parties find themselves in intolerable conditions and desperately seek a rescuing hand anywhere, even from the U.S. That scenario seems inaccurate, and can be safely discarded, for these players are masters at enduring hardship and turning their victimhood into a populist asset in their gritty neighborhood.

A second interpretation is that all three parties have coolly calculated that a strategic shift towards warmer, and mostly normal, ties with the United States is in their best long-term interests. This is probably true to some extent, but the change they are willing to undergo is not the instantaneous reversal that most officials or analysts speak of in the United States. And it will not occur in response to either American carrots or sticks.

A third and more plausible interpretation is that Iran, Syria and Hamas are signaling their willingness to play the political game -- but only on a level playing field in which they, along with the Americans and Israelis, follow a single rulebook. The Middle East comprises the world’s oldest commercial bazaars and trade routes -- where foreign caravans and armies alike pass through on a regular basis, and the locals have learned that survival is usually enhanced by making deals with the foreigners for the mutual benefit of both sides.

President Obama personally wasted no time signaling that his administration, too, was willing to talk, and to negotiate new relationships that reflected mutual trust, addressed reciprocal grievances, and ensured shared interests. Viewed from the ancient marketplaces of the Middle East, the warriors of the Bush administration seem to have been replaced by the negotiators and traders of the Obama administration.

About ten thousand years of settled life and trading economies in the Middle East have taught us that the first thing you do when you want to make a deal is signal your interest in the wares on offer, to show that you intend to negotiate. Just an interested glance will do in many cases to initiate the process. Then you hang around for a few minutes and casually inspect the wares on offer, not revealing too much desire. You usually follow that up with an outrageously unrealistic offer that you know will be turned down -- and this launches the bargaining process.

This month, if you look around Washington, Tehran, Damascus and Gaza, you can see sellers of carpets and dreams putting their bags of samples on the table and opening them, while glancing pointedly at the other’s offerings -- diplomatic bazaar body language that they are interested in talking business.

When those whom the United States declares as foes and menaces do this, following Washington’s initiative signaling that change was in the air, this does not mean we have a deal. It means we have a bargaining process underway -- which is a lot smarter than engaging through war, sanctions, threats, insults or proxy battles. 

Two key lessons seem important here: The supposedly intense ideological differences with America’s foes are not so intractable after all and can be overcome with some rational discussions and compromises; and, when the United States treats others as equals, and drops the arrogant divine mandate nonsense, good things can happen for all concerned.

Rami G. Khouri is Editor-at-large ofThe Daily Star, and Director of the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs at the American University of Beirut, in Beirut, Lebanon.