A series of meetings between United States and Syrian diplomats, including U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her counterpart, Foreign Minister Walid Muallem, at the United Nations last week are stirring speculation that Washington may at last be moving toward engaging Damascus.

DUBAI, UAE -- As a literature student, one was endlessly fascinated by the term Poetic Justice. The ancient Greeks, especially Aristotle, believed that virtue should be ultimately rewarded and vice punished in a literary work, often by an ironic twist of fate intimately related to the characters own conduct.

Following a week of devastating economic news, the latest presidential and vice-presidential televised debates have put concerns of foreign affairs back on the campaign agenda – particularly issues of importance to Muslim-U.S. relations. Coupled with earlier campaign spin about Barack Obamas alleged Muslim roots, Sarah Palins reference to "Gods work" in Iraq, John McCains repetitive reference to "radical Islam" and other examples of media mania about Islam, one may have the impression that the future of American relations with the Muslim world depends on the outcome of the 2008 elections.

About 3,500 refugees in Camp Ashraf, in Iraq close to an hours drive from both Baghdad and the Iranian border, are at serious risk. They are members and supporters of the main Iranian opposition, the Peoples Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI), formed in the 1960s in opposition to the shahs absolute monarchy and currently seeking to replace the Iranian regime with a secular and democratic government.

In theory, Americas two presidential candidates – the Democrat Barack Obama and the Republican John McCain – are poles apart on Middle East policy. Their rhetoric has been very different on Iraq, on Iran, on Palestine, on Islamic terrorism, on torture, and even, further afield, on Russian expansion in the Caucasus.

DAMASCUS, Syria -- After the end of the Cold War, the West began to perceive Muslim fundamentalism as the new threat to their stability. Recent fighting between Georgia and Russia has brought back specters of that Cold War.

Ban Ki-Moon, secretary general of the United Nations, is expected to appoint seasoned U.S. diplomat and former U.S. Ambassador to Algeria and Syria Christopher Ross as his personal envoy for the Western Sahara. This appointment will hopefully continue the momentum of the current negotiations process to end the three decades old conflict between Morocco and the Polisario Front, an Algerian-backed rebel movement which has challenged Moroccos historical sovereignty over a Colorado-sized desert territory in North Africa (sometimes referred to as the Western Sahara.)

Terrorism in Syria is indeed rare, but in just the last 10 days the country has experienced a number of unexplained explosions associated with terrorist activities. The government in Damascus remains tight-lipped as ever, though statements made by Syrian President Bashar Assad allude to the origins of those attacks emanating from Salafist groups based in northern Lebanon.

This month marked 15 years since the signing of the Israel-PLO Declaration of Principles on the South Lawn of the White House, launching the Oslo process and a new hope for the Middle East. The anniversary was largely ignored, overshadowed by the latest rounds of political uncertainty and upheaval in both Israel (where the ruling Kadima party elected Tzipi Livni its new leader) and in the Palestinian territories. Indeed there was little cause for fanfare or celebration. The latest incarnation of Oslo, the Annapolis effort, is sputtering toward another unrealized peace deadline, the end of 2008.

It is a mystery how the Iraq war was planned and supported for a long time without an effective opposition, despite being one of the worst foreign policy decisions in recent U.S. history. But it becomes less of a puzzle if one applies to the situation some principles of social psychology. In this light, a return to the classic literature is pertinent.