I've just been on a whirlwind trip in the Middle East and am now in Dubai planning to fly back to Washington tonight.

Don't have much time to write tonight -- but the one impression I can share from talking to a few folks here is that a seemingly brewing storm with Iran is not felt among the regular folks.  Jim Fallows once told me that while he was out doing some work in Seattle at Microsoft and then on various trips to Silicon Valley in California that he experienced an eery distance there from anything that a self-serious Washington was obsessed with. 

I don't want to minimize the dance that the Iranians, Europeans, Americans and Israelis are doing over Iran's nuclear aspirations -- with some involvement from the GCC countries -- but the issue of Iran is not high profile in the Arabic press I was looking at or in the conversations I've had with folks here.

Just a highly subjective snapshot -- but of note to me anyway.

More soon.