Middle Eastern Political Candor

by Daniel Pipes
Tue, 1 Apr 2008
updated Sat, 5 Apr 2008

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Prince Hassan bin Talal, younger brother of the late King Hussein of Jordan and uncle to the current King Abdallah II, has long spoken his mind. He continued and extended this tradition today in an interview with Stephen Sackur on the BBC program HardTalk when he stated that Arab regimes friendly to Washington (e.g., those in Jordan, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia) are lying when they claim that Tehran is working through Hamas. These Arab governments, he argued, are pushing this story to advance their own interests. Sackur pressed him on this point and Hassan replied (at 12:10 into the interview):

H.R.H. Prince Hassan of Jordan.

we come from a Byzantine civilization, from centuries of dissimulation. I mean, we [Middle Easterners] are professional liars.

Comment: This is the sort of cynical, self-critical talk that Middle Eastern political types constantly engage in among themselves but usually take care not to express in public. That Hassan allowed himself to say such a thing on the BBC suggests he is fed up with the hypocrisy.

I shall post other interesting examples of this genre as they come to my attention. (April 1, 2008)

Related Topics: Middle East patterns, Middle East politics

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Reader comments on this weblog entry

Title	By	Date
I am an Arab, yes we are the big liars. [89 words]	Sameer Salah Eddin	Apr 21, 2008 12:56
Liars of the Arab world [33 words]	Hans Gesund	Apr 21, 2008 07:01
No Surprise [96 words]	Mahendra Mathur	Apr 15, 2008 21:12
As one who has had business dealings with Arabs... [46 words]	James Burke	Apr 15, 2008 16:59
This story makes no sense. What am I missing? [w/response] [80 words]	Steve Klein	Apr 15, 2008 10:03
very telling words [158 words]	mz ravin black	Apr 9, 2008 22:53
confession time [134 words]	Rebecca Moulds	Apr 9, 2008 17:21
oops... [46 words]	devrocky@aol.com	Apr 8, 2008 14:17
↔ What? [6 words]	Kevin M	Apr 9, 2008 19:31
↔ 2ND LANGUAGE.... [7 words]	DONVAN	Apr 11, 2008 10:19
A new Epimenides [303 words]	Archimedes2	Apr 7, 2008 17:01
Yup [12 words]	Kevin M	Apr 6, 2008 21:16
Listening closely to the "Prince's" wisdom. [104 words]	Ynnatchkah	Apr 5, 2008 23:42

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