There is a saying derived from ancient Chinese lore that, to wish someone well, you tell them: “May you live in interesting times.” And what is time but a sequence of events that may indeed be interesting when history is on the march? But just as you catch a glimpse of the moment, it vanishes around the corner, only for another to appear.
Nowhere is this more palpable than in televised media, where events, instead of unfolding in real time, are compressed into minutes, sometimes even seconds. In fact, a television hour is not sixty minutes, but fifty, once you deduct a programme’s opening segment and the advertisements.
I just spent ten days at Al-Arabiya television, where the world of politics becomes a maelstrom swirling around such critical dualities as war and peace, upheaval and stability, beauty and ugliness. Without such antitheses, the drama is incomplete. It only concludes because the presenter has no choice but to bring it to an end.
At this point in the lives of news stations, the protagonists that parade onto and off the cameras are far from ordinary figures. They are presidents or their aides, and their cool and unflappable facades make them even more interesting. President Trump, a former reality TV host, is a natural political screen star in such tumultuous times. However, what are we to make of the newcomer to the political screen, Steve Witkoff, the billionaire real estate developer who stepped out of the world of condo-hotels right into the hub of international mediating. Not only is he tasked with resolving the Ukrainian conflict and the Gaza dilemma between Israel and Hamas, he has also been floated as a candidate for resolving the US-Iran dispute over the latter’s nuclear programme. In the process, he had to take a detour via the Houthi question even though he had never even heard of the Houthis. In much earlier times, it was Henry Kissinger, a Harvard international relations professor, who handled such missions.
My first ten days at the Al-Arabiya studios in Dubai were taken up by the press conference held by President Trump alongside the Israeli prime minister. It was quite an unusual event, though under Trump this has become the norm. Throughout such events, the guests sit silently admiring Trump, only allowed to speak near the end. But that comes after the US president has dropped several bombshells, providing enough material in one session to fill countless pages of print and hours of TV commentary.
Every US president has his own style, from his choice of makeup and tie to posture and the words that slip and sometimes gush from his mouth. Trump’s approach to relations with Israel is a far cry from his approach to Ukraine, as epitomised by the Oval Office meeting with Zelensky, which was likened to a bloodbath. Yet, even Israel cannot escape the Trumpian theory that everyone – friends and foe alike – has betrayed America, despite all the generosity and support it has shown them. In fact, according to this view, America’s friends were more of an ungrateful drain on US resources than its foes.
Trump’s meeting with Netanyahu came after he unleashed the tariff bomb. On that matter, Trump adamantly refused to reduce the 17 per cent tariff on Israeli goods, stating that Washington provides Israel with four billion dollars in annual aid. What he did not say was that the US runs an $8 billion trade deficit with Israel, exporting $14.8 billion of goods to that country while importing $22.2 billion from it, the implication being that it was time to balance the books.
Not only did Trump “summon” Netanyahu to Washington to drive this point home in front of reporters, he simultaneously had conversations with the leaders of Egypt, France and Jordan who were meeting in Cairo to promote a ceasefire in Gaza. These two developments combined seem to signal a shift in the balance of power. Lending even greater weight to this is the expectation that Trump’s forthcoming visits to Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar could yield up to $3 trillion in investments in the US in the fields of advanced science and technology.
As all this unfolded, the US intensified its war on the Houthis, while the Houthis arrested their own deputy chief of intelligence for divulging the coordinates of their missile platforms and details on their commanders’ meeting times to the US. Iran then dropped a bombshell of its own, saying it would end its support for the Houthis. Tehran’s allies in Iraq – the Popular Mobilisation Forces – have discovered that little glory was to be found in sharing the fate of Hamas and Hizbullah.
Such developments brought the world of politics and a breathless news media to the eve of the indirect meeting between Witkoff and Araghchi in Muskat. It is called “indirect” because it is taking place on Omani territory and its opening sessions will be attended by officials from Oman. However, it is direct in the sense that the nuclear agreement will be on the table along with other very interesting issues.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 17 April, 2025 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
Short link: