Sarkozy Visit to Damascus Signals Thaw in Relationsian Black, Middle East Editor s7

Sat. 27 Nov. 2010

SOFIA ECHO  Bulgaria and the Arab world………………...………………1

HAARETZ  Rabin's son presents his Israeli Peace Initiative……..………3  Intel sources implicate Syria in Hariri assassination….……..5  Erdogan: Turkey will not remain silent if Israel attacks Lebanon……………………………………………….……..7

YEDIOTH AHRONOTH  Saudis stop Hamas men from reaching Syria………………..8  Erdogan wins Libyan human rights prize………………….10

LATIMES  U.N. nuclear agency makes little progress in Syria……..…11

GUARDIAN  Memories and maps keep alive Palestinian hopes of return.13

THE AUSTRALIAN  Syrian state of mind………………………………………..16

NYTIMES  Damascus Evolves Into a Hub of Mideast Art……………..20 HOME PAGE Bulgaria and the Arab world Clive Leviev-Sawyer, Sofia Echo, Nov 26 2010 402

On the eve of his departure for a visit to Libya, Foreign Minister Nikolai Mladenov said that he was heading to Tripoli to "patch up dialogue".

The statement, reported in mass-circulation daily 24 Chassa on November 18, has a context obvious to anyone familiar with recent history between Bulgaria and Libya. In short, the traumatic saga of the Bulgarian nurses, freed on their return to this country in 2007 after long years facing charges that most of the world saw as without foundation. 2 As Algerian ambassador in Sofia Ahmed Boutache says in his interview with The Sofia Echo, the Arab world is not a monolith.

Various factors have been at play in recent years. Notably, Bulgaria’s dispute with Libya about the nurses did no harm to its relations with other Arab states which, it may be suggested, would be more likely to be influenced by Sofia’s position on Israel than by a row with Gaddafi.

If, however, relations with Arab countries have been somewhat in the doldrums in the years immediately past, another factor may be the vague passivity in aspects of the conduct of foreign policy of the current government’s predecessors. In short, hypnotised by its EU aspirations, Bulgaria lacked vision and energy in dealings with the rest of the world – and not only the Middle East, by any means.

Revival Exchanges have become more dynamic in the past year.

2 Some, more high-profile: Palestinian authority president Mahmoud Abbas, Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, both figures who have received Bulgarian leaders as well as come to visit.

Others' trips attract less notice. On November 19, Agriculture and Food Minister Miroslav Naidenov, at the head of a business delegation, left on a visit to the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Kuwait. That aside, there are indications of regular dialogue at various levels between Bulgaria and some Arab states on energy issues.

For every engagement, there is its complexity. Bulgaria has been a vocal supporter of the European missile shield. Its neighbour and fellow Nato member, Turkey, insisted that the Nato decision made no reference to the idea of the missile shield being against Iran (French president Nicolas Sarkozy had no qualms about saying publicly that it was).

3 Speaking of Turkey, Bulgaria maintains good relations with Israel, while recent tensions between Turkey and Israel are well-known. Turkey may not count as an Arab state, but it is closely tied to the dynamics of the Middle East, a big picture of which no detail should be neglected.

Trade According to Foreign Minister Mladenov, trade between Bulgaria and the Middle East increased by about 40 per cent in the past year, and the current Government wants to make a strong return to Bulgaria’s markets in the Middle East. At the same time, Bulgaria offers good investment opportunities for Middle Eastern countries, he was quoted as saying.

Notably, there has been no discernible false note in public in each of Bulgaria’s engagements. The media in Damascus reflected official enthusiasm for the possibilities in relations with Sofia. A Syrian-Bulgarian Business Council was started at the beginning of 2010.

3 An article by Syrian news agency Sana at the time of the Syrian president’s visit to Sofia highlighted energy issues while the Syrian Day Press News said during Al-Assad’s visit that "Syria can be the gateway for Bulgarian products to Arab countries through Syria’s membership in the Grand Arab Trade Zone, and Bulgaria can be the gateway for Syrian products to the European Union and the Balkans".

Big issue Bulgaria has been even-handed in its dealings with the respective Israeli and Palestinian sides – allowing for the fact that the truth of that statement will be open to challenge depending on where you stand.

At the same time, the facts are that while speaking out for Israel’s right to sovereignty and security, Bulgaria also publicly has reaffirmed its support for an independent Palestinian state, established through peaceful negotiations. 4 In July this year, Bulgaria and Palestine agreed to set up a joint committee to discuss future co-operation and a business forum to intensify bilateral economic ties.

All of this in context, of course. There is evidence of a more determined dynamism in Bulgaria’s foreign policy towards the Middle East and again, it does appear more striking in part because of the inertia of governments past. That, at the same time, is not to belittle what even Arab diplomats notice as new progress – while bearing in mind that Bulgaria has other pressing foreign policy priorities, not least among its neighbours and near- neighbours in the Western Balkans.

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Rabin's son presents his Israeli Peace Initiative Yuval Rabin and businessman Koby Huberman propose a response to the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative: A Palestinian state based on 1967 borders, with Jerusalem 'the home of two capitals'. By Akiva Eldar

4 Haaaretz, 26 Nov. 2010,

Yuval Rabin, the son of the late prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, has joined forces with businessman and social activist Koby Huberman in order to advocate for the Israeli Peace Initiative, or IPI, a response to the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative.

In an article published in the Web site bitterlemons.org, Rabin and Huberman propose that instead of responding to the APA, the Israeli government should say "yes" by presenting a parallel proposal to end the conflict – the IPI.

The two have spent several months promoting the IPI among political figures, academics, and businessmen in Israel and at the same time tested the reaction of Palestinian and Arab figures to the principles of the initiative in an unofficial manner.

5 The detailed IPI proposal will be soon published in English, Hebrew, and Arabic, and the principles outlined are the following:

1. A viable Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders and one- on-one land swaps 2. Jerusalem as the home of two capitals and special arrangements in the holy basin 3. An agreed solution for the refugees inside the Palestinian state (with symbolic exceptions) 4. Mutual recognition of the genuine national identities of the two states as the outcome of negotiations and not as a prerequisite 5. Reiteration of the principles underlying Israel's 1948 declaration of independence regarding civic equality for its Arab citizens 6. Long-term security arrangements with international components.

In regards to the Syrian channel, the IPI suggests that the end-of- conflict scenario include "phased withdrawals from the Golan Heights to finally reach the 1967 borders with one-on-one land swaps, coupled with tight security arrangements to curb terrorists and paramilitary organizations."

5 "Regarding Lebanon," Rabin and Huberman write, "the scenario articulates mainly security arrangements, as international borders have already been established. The other three IPI components present regional security mechanisms addressing common regional threats, a vision for regional economic development, and parallel evolution toward regional recognition and normal ties."

Concluding the article, Rabin and Huberman say that they "hope the IPI creates an intensified dialogue and some rethinking both in Israeli circles and the region."

"More importantly, 15 years after Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's assassination, we hope to see brave regional and international leaders translate the API and IPI visions into practical and synchronized progress."

Before the previous elections, Yuval Rabin met with Prime 6 Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and told him that he didn't rule out voting for him for prime minister, and also supported Netanyahu's intentions of establishing a unity government.

Rabin's initiative may indicate his disappointment with Netanyahu's current policies.

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Intel sources implicate Syria in Hariri assassination While UN tribunal is expected to indict senior Hezbollah operatives for the killing, Western sources say the assassination was a joint venture between Syria and Hezbollah. By Amos Harel and Avi Issacharoff Haaretz, 26 Nov. 2010,

Syria played a major role in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in February 2005, and the UN probe into the murder is wrongly absolving it of guilt, Western intelligence sources familiar with the probe told Haaretz.

6 The United Nations tribunal investigating the murder is expected to indict senior Hezbollah operatives for the killing, possibly even next month. But Western sources said the assassination had in fact been a joint venture between Syria and Hezbollah that served both their interests.

"There's no doubt Syrian President Bashar Assad was involved in the assassination," said one source. "Hariri had launched a process aimed at kicking the Syrians out of Lebanon, he was running for reelection as prime minister and was thought to have a good chance of winning. Above all, he recruited American, French and Saudi support for the moderate axis in Lebanon. Assad had every reason to get rid of him."

The UN probe initially concluded that Syria was probably behind the murder, but this was based mainly on an analysis of who had the strongest motive rather than on hard evidence. New evidence 7 obtained subsequently - first and foremost an analysis of cell phone data that revealed several people likely involved in the killing - pointed instead to Hezbollah as the culprit, though even this evidence is largely circumstantial.

Letting Damascus off easy As far as is known, the probe's current chairman, Canadian Daniel Bellemare, does not intend to accuse Syria of involvement - in contrast to the conclusion reached by the panel's first chairman, Detlev Mehlis of Germany.

Five months before the murder, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 1559, which demanded that all foreign forces - i.e., the Syrians - leave Lebanon. Assad believed Hariri had been involved in this resolution, which was jointly sponsored by the United States and France.

Abdel Halim Khaddam, who had served as Assad's deputy until he fell out with the rest of the regime and left Syria, later related that Assad had openly made a threat against Hariri during their last

7 meeting before the murder, saying, "Of anyone tries to throw us out of Lebanon, we'll smash Lebanon over his head."

On October 12, 2005 - shortly after he was questioned by the UN commission, and eight days before Mehlis published his report - Syrian Interior Minister Ghazi Kanaan was found dead in his office. Kanaan had presided over Syrian intelligence in Lebanon for two decades and was considered Syria's strong man in Beirut. Damascus claimed he had committed suicide, but Western intelligence agencies believe he was killed by the Syrian regime because he knew too much about Hariri's murder. It is hard to believe, Western sources said, that anyone could have committed suicide by shooting himself three times in the back.

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Erdogan: Turkey will not remain silent if Israel attacks 8 Lebanon Turkey PM warns Lebanese leaders that Israel may be planning an attack, calls on 5 permanent members of the UNSC to pressure Israel over its nuclear program. By Haaretz Service and News Agencies 26 Nov. 2010,

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Thursday that Turkey would not remain silent if Israel attacked Lebanon or Gaza, French News Agency AFP reported.

"Does (Israel) think it can enter Lebanon with the most modern aircraft and tanks to kill women and children, and destroy schools and hospitals, and then expect us to remain silent?" Erdogan said at a conference in Lebanon organized by the Union of Arab Banks.

"Does it think it can use the most modern weapons, phosphorus munitions and cluster bombs to kill children in Gaza and then expect us to remain silent?," AFP reported Erdogan as saying.

8 "We will not be silent and we will support justice by all means available to us."

Until recently, Turkey had been one of Israel's most reliable allies in the Muslim world. However, Ankara has taken a stance against Israel over Operation Cast Lead, leading to a deterioration of ties.

Earlier this week, Erdogan warned Lebanese leaders in Ankara that Israel may be planning an attack from its northern border.

In a meeting with Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri and President Michel Suleiman on Monday, Erdogan declared that Israel was endangering world peace by using exaggerated force against the Palestinians, breaching Lebanon's air space and waters and for not revealing the details of its nuclear program.

Erdogan called on the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council to pressure Israel over its nuclear 9 program in the same way that the international community has been dealing with Iran.

Last week, Erdogan confirmed Turkey had received an official apology from Israel over what the Turkish ambassador termed "humiliating" treatment by Ayalon, saying that it was "the expected and desired response."

Erdogan added more criticism of Israel, telling a news conference: "Israel must put itself in order and it must be more just and more on the side of peace in the region."

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Saudis stop Hamas men from reaching Syria Ynet learns Saudi Arabia received information that senior Hamas, Islamic Jihad members arriving in Mecca from Gaza plan to head to Damascus. Their passports taken away, returned only after they get on Egypt-bound plane Ali Waked Yedioth Ahronoth, 26 Nov. 2010,

9 Saudi Arabia has prevented senior members from Hamas, the Islamic Jihad and the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), who had made the pilgrimage from Gaza to Mecca, to continue on to Damascus to meet the leaders of their organizations, a source within one of the organizations told Ynet on Friday.

The source said that lately many senior members in Hamas and other organizations joined dozens of operatives including a group from the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades on a pilgrimage to Mecca which began in Egypt.

At the end of the Hajj period the senior members wished to continue on their journey – via Syria, but Saudi authorities, who had received information about the plan in advance, took their passports from them. The passports were returned when the senior members got on a plane bound for Egypt.

Damascus is the permanent residence of Hamas Politburo Chief 10 Khaled Mashaal and his deputy Dr. Mousa Abu Marzouk as well as other senior Hamas members. The head of the Islamic Jihad and PRC also reside in Syria.

Ynet learned that Egyptian security forces at the Rafah Border Crossing searched the Hamas members' belongings in order to ensure that they were not attempting to smuggle funds into the Gaza strip.

Last week, 2.5 million Muslim believers from around the world made the pilgrimage on foot, by bus or by car following what is believed to be the path that the Prophet Muhammad took in the seventh century. Hajj is one of Islam's most important commandments its goal – to be purified of all sin.

The Saudi step was extremely surprising considering the strengthening relations between Saudi Arabia and Syria. The two countries are working together to avoid a crisis in Lebanon. Syrian President Basher Assad and Abdullah King of Saudi Arabia met in Beirut four months ago to discuss the security situation in

10 Lebanon, and fears that the divided country would spiral towards a cycle of violence like the one it went through in May 2008.

Assad and Abdullah represent Lebanon's two main factions: Syria supports the Shiite Hezbollah whereas Saudi Arabia is the patron of the Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri and the Sunni camp.

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Erdogan wins Libyan human rights prize Turkish prime minister to receive Muammar Gaddafi Prize for Human Rights next week Yedioth Ahronoth (original story is by AFP) 27 Nov. 2010,

The Muammar Gaddafi Prize for Human Rights will be given to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan during his visit to Libya next week. 11

Erdogan was informed of the win during his visit to Lebanon.

The Turkish PM will be visiting Libya to attend a conference of African countries and the European Union. He will receive the prize on November 29 from Gaddafi himself, the Libyan leader's office said Friday.

Erdogan is not the first leader to win the prestigious Libyan prize. He was preceded by former South African President Nelson Mandela, former Cuban leader Fidel Castro and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

During his Lebanon trip on Thursday, Erdogan warned that Turkey will not remain silent if Israel attacks Lebanon or Gaza.

"Does (Israel) think it can enter Lebanon with the most modern aircraft and tanks to kill women and children, and destroy schools and hospitals, and then expect us to remain silent?" Erdogan said at a conference organized by the Union of Arab Banks.

11 HOME PAGE

U.N. nuclear agency makes little progress in Syria The U.S. may seek special inspections after the IAEA reports that it is still denied access to several suspected nuclear sites. By Julia Damianova, Los Angeles Times November 26, 2010

Reporting from Istanbul, Turkey The United States is about to push for so-called special inspections in Syria by the U.N. nuclear watchdog, a rarely used tool to seek access in a country that otherwise denies entry to sensitive sites, diplomats familiar with the issue say.

After a report Tuesday from the International Atomic Energy Agency that showed no substantial progress in its investigation of 12 Syria's nuclear activities, Western countries may start to play hardball by implementing the rarely used procedure, the diplomats told The Times this week.

"The United States wants to bring up the subject of special inspections in Syria at the IAEA Board of Governors in December," said a European diplomat who asked to remain unnamed because of the sensitivity of the issue.

Countries that are signatories to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty may be subject to special inspections if the agency decides that the information obtained in routine visits is not adequate to fulfill its duties, which include watching for signs that a country may be trying to obtain nuclear weapons.

Currently, a reactor in Damascus is the only Syrian nuclear facility under international watch, and the agency needs the country's permission to visit any other location.

12 The IAEA has employed the special inspections tool twice. It sent its staff on such a visit to Romania in 1992, but a year later a similar request to North Korea was denied.

If a country rejects the request, it can be subject to IAEA censure or referral to the U.N. Security Council, which can impose sanctions.

Syria came to the forefront of the agency's attention in 2007, after Israel bombed a suspected nuclear site northeast of Damascus. In June 2008, the agency said it had received information alleging that Syria had been building a nuclear reactor at Al Kibar, also known as Dair Alzour.

According to U.S. intelligence disclosures, the facility was of North Korean design. Damascus, a close ally of Iran, denies the existence of any clandestine nuclear program in the country but has let IAEA inspectors visit the bombed site only once. 13 Syria has denied the agency's requests for further access to the Al Kibar site, as well as to three other locations allegedly related to it, on the grounds that they are military facilities. Inspectors worry that the sites will lose whatever clues they may hold.

"With the passage of time, some of the information concerning the Dair Alzour site is further deteriorating or has been lost entirely," IAEA chief Yukiya Amano wrote in this week's report on Syria.

Amano stressed that "it is critical, therefore, that Syria actively cooperate with the agency on these unresolved safeguards implementation issues without further delay." There are other Syrian nuclear puzzles. In 2008 and 2009 IAEA inspectors found modified uranium particles at the Al Kibar site and the Miniature Source Neutron Reactor in the Syrian capital that were not part of the county's reported inventory. This spring the agency came across a "small quantity of uranyl nitrate," another suspicious substance.

13 Syria has since offered explanations for those discoveries, but "inconsistencies between Syria's declarations and the agency's findings remained unresolved," Amano wrote.

His latest report also said that Damascus is reluctant to let inspectors inside a pilot acid-purification plant near the city of Homs that the IAEA wants to check "for the purpose of determining the extent of any uranium-processing activities and nuclear material at that location."

Western diplomats following the case are frustrated by what they describe as Syria's intransigence.

"The new IAEA report on Syria seems to be similar to the one from September, showing no progress in the agency's investigation," said one diplomat in Vienna who spoke on condition of anonymity.

14 Another diplomat familiar with the issue said patience with Syria's lack of cooperation is wearing thin and that the country may now be ripe for the special inspections procedure.

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Memories and maps keep alive Palestinian hopes of return Refugees remain the most intractable issue of the Middle East conflict, as two new books show Ian Black Middle East editor, Guardian, 26 Nov. 2010,

Memories and maps feature prominently in the experience of Palestinians – a people scarred by dispossession, dispersion, occupation and profound uncertainty about their future. So amid the latest wrangling over the stalled peace talks with Israel come two sharp reminders of the depth of the conflict and how difficult it will be to resolve.

14 Salman Abu Sitta, a refugee from 1948, has spent years cataloguing the course and consequences of the nakbah (disaster) that Israel's "war of independence" represented for his people. Now he has published an updated version of his massive Atlas of Palestine, stuffed with tables, graphs and nearly 500 pages of maps that trace the transformation of the country starting with its conquest by the British in 1917 and the Balfour declaration's promise to create a "national home" for the Jews.

Aerial photographs taken by first world war German pilots are combined with mandate-era and Israeli maps supplemented by digitally enhanced satellite images that record old tribal boundaries, neighbourhoods and even individual buildings. Most striking are the hundreds of Arab villages that were destroyed or ploughed under fields, as well as postwar Jewish settlements and suburbs. The Abu Sitta family lands, for example, are now owned by Kibbutz Nirim, near the border with Gaza.

15 Abu Sitta is a leading expert on the nakbah and what is nowadays widely described as the "ethnic cleansing" it involved. There can be no mistaking where his sympathies lie and where he stands in the febrile debate about Zionist intentions. Still, large parts of his account draw on the history of the 1948 war as rewritten by revisionist Israeli scholars in recent years as archives have opened up and old myths been demolished.

He is also a passionate advocate of the "right of return", under which Palestinian refugees must be allowed to go back to their lost lands and property. Refugees are the single toughest issue of the Middle East conflict: the Oslo agreement between Israel and the PLO implied that the right would not be exercised inside pre-1967 Israel, but only in a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, and so, apart from a symbolic number of family reunifications, there would be no mass "return" to west Jerusalem, Haifa, Lydda or hundreds of now non-existent villages.

The notion was that such an arrangement would be part of a pragmatic final peace settlement that drew a line under a painful past. Abu Sitta, like many Palestinians, fiercely opposed Oslo, and

15 his views have not wavered. What has changed is the sense that as prospects for that elusive two-state solution fade, the only alternatives are either the status quo of Israeli occupation, cementing what some call de facto apartheid, or one single democratic state in which Israelis and Palestinians live peacefully together – and to which the refugees could finally return.

It is hard to imagine how Israel would ever voluntarily agree to surrender the Jewish majority it has within the 1967 borders – the raison d'être of the Zionist movement. Yet it remains taboo even to question whether that right is ever likely to be exercised. Andrew Whitley, a senior official of Unwra, the UN agency that looks after Palestinian refugees, was forced to apologise recently when he called it a "cruel illusion" to suggest that the 1948 refugees would ever be able to go home.

Abu Sitta leafs through his atlas, which includes detailed plans for refugee repatriation, and insists otherwise. "In the age of advanced 16 technology it is quite feasible to compare the rich and meticulously recorded history of Palestine with the existing electronic Israeli record of every Palestinian house and acre of land, who owned it and to which Jewish body it is leased," he writes. "From this, both cultural and physical restoration of Palestine could take place. What remains is the wisdom, enforced by political will, to implement it."

Social scientist Dina Matar also follows "the trajectory of a continuing nakbah," in her fine book about "what it means to be a Palestinian in the 21st century", but her mission is to record voices that are normally heard only in fragments and at times of crisis. This "composite biography" includes personal stories and "reconstructed experiences" from the 1936 rebellion against the British through to Oslo in 1993, and unifies the disparate worlds of Palestinians living in Israel, the West Bank, Lebanon and Syria. Individual narratives of suffering, defiance and despair are linked by chapters of factual historical background, and tell of life in refugee camps, the experience of the Jordanian civil war or the first intifada, when the "children of the stones" took on the Israeli military but won only the brief attention of an indifferent world.

16 Matar, not surprisingly, identifies 1948 as the key date in Palestinian collective memory and notes "the persistent theme that the Palestinian sense of displacement was not the result of one specific event, but an ongoing process, continuing into the present."

Her telling subtitle – "stories of Palestinian peoplehood" – suggests that she too believes that the old aspiration of "statehood" is not likely to be realised any time soon.

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Syrian state of mind Marleena Forward The Australian, 26 Nov. 2010, 17 THE searing sun has almost dropped beneath the horizon as I step through the enormous arched gateway of Souk Al-Hamidiyya for the first time. Being a Thursday, the last day of the Islamic working week, the steaming marketplace is throbbing with activity.

Small groups of women clad in ankle-length trench coats and colourful hijabs inspect the market stalls and families wander through the crowds, soaking up the festive atmosphere. Most of the multitudes are men: young, old, workers, leisure-seekers.

This is Damascus, after all, and Syria, like most Arabic countries, is a man's world.

Dressed in long pants and a scarf to cover my bare neck, I weave my way through the market throng, doing my best to deflect the shopkeepers' summons of "Welcome! Where you from?" Halfway through the souk I am sucked into the human washing machine that is Bakdash ice cream store, a much-loved local institution. It is packed with customers battling to reach the harassed-looking

17 cashier who hands out coloured tokens, little plastic keys to gastronomic heaven.

Here, my status as a solo female traveller works to my advantage; after a brief struggle to reach the counter, I emerge from the shop two minutes later balancing a cone topped with every flavour under the Syrian sun, although I asked for only one.

As I race to finish my ice cream before the big melt, I take a turn into a rabbit warren of smaller market lanes, all specialising in different goods: toys, bridal wear, pharmaceuticals, it's all here.

Supermarkets are nonexistent in Syria; all the family shopping is still done in the souk, as it has been for centuries.

It is dark now, but I feel comfortable walking through this city, despite the regular comments and stares from shopkeepers and men seated on sidewalks. 18 Soon the souk spits me out on to a long, straight street, and it takes me several minutes before I realise this is Straight Street, the same "street called Straight" visited by St Paul, according to the Bible. Wandering through the streets of Damascus is like wandering through time. On every corner is another reminder of the city's astounding history and the significant place it holds for Islam and Christianity.

Never is this truer than for the great Umayyad Mosque. I pick my time carefully, opting to visit in the late evening when the golden sun should show the mosque's architectural beauty in its best light. As always, the main doorway to the complex is thick with locals and pilgrims who have come to pray at this holiest of world mosques, after Mecca and Medina.

I pass by a large group of Iranian women in their identifiable black chadors as I make my way to the visitors' entrance marked by a sign that reads: "Putting on spare clothes room". Being a woman, I must don the obligatory ankle-length hooded cloak before entering the mosque.

18 What is truly astounding about the Umayyad Mosque is that the site on which it sits has been a place of worship for a staggering 3000 years.

In the 9th century BC, the Aramaeans constructed a temple here in honour of their god, Haddad. Later, when the Romans assumed control of Damascus, the site became the location of a vast temple to Jupiter, the inner walls of which still stand to form the outer perimeter of today's mosque.

When the Roman emperor Constantine I officially adopted Christianity in the 4th century AD, the temple was converted into a basilica and the head of John the Baptist was reputedly brought to the site, where it is said to remain.

Finally, when the Muslims came to Damascus in AD636, the Umayyad caliph decided that Damascus, as the capital of the 19 Islamic world, deserved a grand mosque the likes of which had never been seen. So, after years of labour by the region's finest craftsmen, the Umayyad Mosque emerged as one of the marvels of the ancient world. Even today, after centuries of damage at the hands of looters and through natural disasters, it is one of the world's architectural gems.

It is exciting to step inside for the first time. The highly polished marble floor of the enormous inner courtyard acts like a mirror, reflecting the setting sunlight and the dark figures of hundreds of people above.

Unexpectedly, this section of the mosque has the atmosphere of a gigantic fun park rather than a solemn place of worship; children play with joyful abandon while their parents take the opportunity to relax and socialise.

I lose track of time as I watch the goings-on and enjoy the peace of sitting still, free from the questions of curious men.

19 At last, with the sunlight finally slipping over the roof, I tear myself away from the courtyard and wander through the prayer halls before closing time. The locals welcome me into their midst with smiles and positively encourage me when I pull out my camera. I have often been told by Syrians that they regret their country's, and their religion's, poor reputation in the West.

After days spent in the souks and admiring the countless old buildings and palaces hidden within Damascus's old town, I finally feel ready to leave the city.

But there is one last thing I want to do.

Hidden behind a curtained doorway in a cobblestoned alley is Hammam Ammoonah, one of the city's only public baths that caters for women. The gorgeous building that houses the hammam dates back to the 12th century and features two bathrooms and a tiny steam room. 20 I take my cues from the women around me and change into a bathing suit, watching in fascination as two middle-aged women beside me unwrap their headscarfs, then continue to remove layer on layer of clothing. How they can function in the intense midday heat wearing so much?

I have seen a side of Syrian society that male travellers are strictly forbidden from observing. In the hammam, the women are relaxed and chatty; their guard is down and the stringent social conventions that usually govern their lives are relaxed.

After a steam and a wash I'm scrubbed down by a buxom lady who sits splayed on the marble bathroom floor. I wince as she leans me against her undulating stomach and scours me from head to toe, taking off several layers of skin in the process.

Finally I emerge from the hammam into the dusty midday heat, newly cleansed and ready for the next leg of my journey.

20 As I walk back through the souk, I can't resist the pull of the Bakdash ice cream whirlpool for one last visit. My moustachioed friends working the tubs wink and smile in recognition as they hand over a multicoloured tower of icy goodness.

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Damascus Evolves Into a Hub of Mideast Art By SETH SHERWOOD New York Times, 26 Nov. 2010,

Maybe it was the sight of a television crew filming tuxedo-clad waiters as they maneuvered around the gallery with alcoholic drinks. Maybe it was the glimpse of the fashionable young woman in designer jeans and the ostentatious Fendi handbag. Or maybe it was simply the impressive canvases of colorful abstract paintings 21 and the throng of well-dressed international admirers chatting in accented English.

Admiring the action, a 60-something visitor, who identified himself simply as “Sam from San Francisco,” smiled and remarked with disbelief, “This could be London or New York or Paris.” Then he flagged a waiter for a glass of Champagne.

In fact, the scene — an opening at the Ayyam Gallery for the artist Abdullah Murad — was not taking place in a Western capital of the avant-garde but quite the opposite: Damascus, the remote and ancient capital of Syria. And it was a scene that is becoming increasingly common as the city evolves from artistic backwater into a thriving hub of contemporary Middle Eastern painting.

Visitor disbelief is understandable. As the world’s oldest continuously inhabited metropolis, Damascus has long been famous for its ancient appeals rather than contemporary creations: Roman ruins, medieval mosques, Ottoman-period minipalaces, Christian and Islamic lore. The graves of both John the Baptist and

21 the martyr Hussein, grandson of Mohammed, are in the Umayyad Mosque here.

For a long time, the torch of Syrian contemporary art was carried primarily by pioneers like Mustafa Ali, the sculptor whose ramshackle courtyard mansion showcases his moody faces in wood and bronze, and Mona Atassi, the irrepressible director of the Atassi Gallery.

But as the international art world has turned its spotlight on the Middle Eastern market in recent years — Sotheby’s, Christie’s and Bonham’s have established regional headquarters in Dubai — the art scenes in Syria, Lebanon and Jordan have flourished.

Galleries with international ambitions have sprouted to recruit and exhibit local talents. Artists’ profiles have steadily surged, to say nothing of their prices. The only major restriction is that artists must be careful to avoid political subjects in this police state. “No 22 one dares” critique the government, one gallery employee whispered.

The Ayyam Gallery has led the charge. It was started by Khaled Samawi, who abandoned a successful banking career in Switzerland to open the gallery in 2006. With his wife and partner, Jouhayna, he has signed up top locals like Safwan Dahoul, who does a Middle Eastern take on Art Deco, and has opened branches in Dubai, Beirut and Cairo. Ayyam also takes part in fairs in Miami, New York, Paris and beyond.

“It’s the European concept of a gallery,” Ms. Samawi said. “We take an artist and go all the way with him. We have a lot of potential here in Syria, a lot of good artists. We just need to put them on the map.”

The efforts appear to be paying off. International institutions and collectors have visited for closer looks, she said. “We had some visits from people at the Guggenheim. The Tate came also. Here, to Damascus. Can you imagine?”

22 A few blocks away, the gallery Tajalliyat has emerged as another top talent incubator since opening last year. On a balmy afternoon the staff was preparing for a show by the Syrian painter Fares Garabet. A dark canvas hung on one wall; it was divided into rectangular panels of gauzy images that recall the Shroud of Turin.

The gallery’s marquee artist is the late Fateh Moudarres, a pioneering 20th-century expressionist and surrealist whom the gallery’s co-owner, Edward el-Shaer, began collecting decades ago.

“When I started my first gallery, in 1985, nobody was interested in art and I couldn’t make any money at it,” said Mr. Shaer, whose family comes from the city of Maaloula. He bought his first Moudarres painting for about $125. Now it’s worth “around $300,000.” Charles Saatchi has one in his collection, Mr. Shaer said, and auction houses like Christie’s and Sotheby’s had been through to have a look. “Now a lot of foreigners are coming to 23 Syria to buy.”

The Damascus art boom can be seen beyond the galleries. Art hotels, once unheard-of here, have begun to sprout. At the year- old Hanania Boutique Hotel, walls are decorated with drippy, brooding portrait paintings by Hala al-Faisal. (The artist attracted notice in 2005 when she was arrested for protesting the U.S. war in Iraq by stripping naked in New York City, where she lives, to reveal body paint that read “Stop the War.”) The Art House Hotel is in a centuries-old castle-like building filled with vaulted stone passageways, studded wooden doors, huge candelabras and other Mideast-Gothic hybrids. You expect to be greeted by Vincent Price. Instead, you are greeted by Ghiath Machnok, the architect and curator.

“Art comes before everything in my life,” he said as he gave a tour of the hotel’s 10 rooms and exhibition area. Nearly every free spot of the building is covered in dark, brooding creations by Syrian artists, especially Sabhan Adam, who creates canvases of monstrous, blood-splattered humanoid creatures. “He’s my favorite,” Mr. Machnok said.

23 Mr. Adam seems to be everyone’s favorite — or least favorite — Syrian artist, partly through the force of his work and partly through his aggressive marketing. He has taken out magazine ads to trumpet his work and has bought space on billboards along highways that show himself, paunchy, balding and 40-something, posing in a white suit.

Visitors to his very black, very sleek apartment are met with a shower of rose petals and the offer of a drink from a well-stocked bar. Decorative knickknacks like large fake gems, cow skulls and musical instruments adorn the walls, along with many paintings of Mr. Adam’s trademark faces and heads.

“ They are the suffering people, the people in pain, the lonely people,” said Mr. Adam through his wife, Ola Taj, who studied English literature and serves as his translator. He said he grew up poor, had no formal art training and used to sell cigarettes on the 24 street to make money. “If I wasn’t an artist, I would be a criminal or a thief,” he said.

Mr. Adam said he found inspiration in the work of Francis Bacon and Egon Schiele. The characters in his paintings, he said, were not supposed to be Syrian or Middle Eastern but universal. “I want all people to understand that this is their reality and their suffering. I want people to see these as their insides.”

The scope of Mr. Adam’s popularity, which is starting to extend beyond the region, offers proof that his message is coming through. “At the beginning, my paintings really troubled people,” he said, sipping a glass of tea as evening descended outside. “Now people love to have them.”

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