Oz Diplomat: Lessons from Lebanon

Ross Burns recently retired after 37 years in the Australian Foreign Service. As well as having headed the Middle East, Africa and South Asia Branch, he is a former Ambassador to Lebanon and Syria in the 1980s, South Africa & Greece in the 1990s and to Israel until 2003. He has also written and lectured on the history and archaeology of the area, especially Syria.

It follows, then, that Ross Burns is more than qualified to speak on the latest conflict in Lebanon - which has raised many questions about the consequences of the long-running Middle East confrontation.

In a lecture at the University of Western Australia on Tuesday last, Ross Burns examined the likely implications for the region in the post-Iraq era and asked “How long can we afford to ignore the central issues of the Middle East equation?” Read the transcript of the lecture here.

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