JEDDAH, 23 June 2004 — On his third visit to the Kingdom but the first time outside the confines of diplomatic formality, Ewen MacAskill, the UK Guardian’s diplomatic editor, wandered round old Jeddah yesterday peering into the stalls and shops of the souk.
Recently back from Darfur, MacAskill’s analysis of the region and the way forward runs counter to the rhetorical demands for military intervention.
“Diplomacy should be given a little longer and the military option kept as a last resort,” he said.
MacAskill is not afraid to quote criticism of his own profession as a way of connecting with events in Darfur.
“‘This is a complete circus,’ an aid worker said, pointing at me and other media colleagues,” he wrote in the Guardian recently.
“He had a point. It is hard not to feel queasy at the sight of a group of well-fed, well-equipped journalists in the middle of thousands of refugees short of food.”
It was then no surprise that he singled out Jeddah’s Balad quarter as the place to assess the mood of the non-diplomatic members of public.
“I get to travel a lot,” he said, “and I always find the older parts of cities much more informative of the underlying culture and mood than concrete and glass.”
A man who listens much more than he speaks, he spent a busy afternoon rummaging in spice shops and taking in the aroma of oud and incense.
It left MacAskill with one valuable impression of Jeddah. “Nobody seems to really take any notice of us,” he said after several diversions down cat-strewn alleys and crowded byways. “It’s all about getting on, surviving and making a living.”
He agreed, however, that violence can spring unannounced and from unexpected directions.
MacAskill, who has written extensively on the rise of Al-Qaeda and has followed the development of events since Sept. 11, came away with the impression that Saudi Arabia is undergoing events that from a later historical perspective may prove a turning point.
He felt that the traditionally relaxed relationship between the Western workers and the people of Saudi Arabia is facing a challenge.
But at street level, there was little evidence of that as he took in the sights and smells of the old town.
On Al-Hamra beach, where at sunset families lay out their mats for evening picnics, MacAskill got much the same impression. “Families sitting by the sea — it all looks so ordinary,” he said.
