A JOKE circulating in the Arab world last week concerned Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, the missing Iraqi information minister whose vain boasts of glorious victories against the American infidels proved tragically wide of the mark.

When Sahaf dies they send him 63 angels, the joke begins. Three ask the usual questions about how he had behaved while alive. The other 60 are needed to stop him denying he is dead.

Sahaf’s antics apart, the demolition of the Iraqi regime is proving no laughing matter for governments across the region. From the Gulf to the Mediterranean, the collapse of Saddam Hussein’s rule has been greeted by rage, shame, despair and bewilderment.

One Tunisian wondered why the Iraqis had “crumbled like a biscuit”. Stunned Arabs puzzled over the crushing defeat of Saddam’s Republican Guard. Where were the promised rings of steel? Where was the street fighting supposed to turn Baghdad into a 21st-century Stalingrad?

Most pressing was the question that most troubles Saddam’s neighbours: which of us is next?

Barely able to conceal their glee at the transformation of their much-criticised march on Baghdad, the conservative masterminds of the US victory last week turned their sights on Damascus. A barrage of threats against Syria signalled a volatile new phase in George Bush’s plan to redraw the map of the Middle East.

When Bush first issued his warning that state sponsorship of terrorism “will not be tolerated”, he specified Iraq, Iran and North Korea as his “axis of evil”.

Yet since the Iraqi conflict began, Syria has emerged as the most likely target of any extension of the war. “There’s got to be a change in Syria,” said Paul Wolfowitz, the deputy US defence secretary who is the administration’s most fervent apostle of Middle Eastern transformation.

Despite subsequent assurances by Colin Powell, the secretary of state, that no US attack was planned on any other country, Washington has continued to accuse Damascus of harbouring high-ranking Iraqi fugitives and producing weapons of mass destruction. “Syria is a good case where I hope they will conclude that the chemical weapons programme and the biological weapons programme they have been pursuing are things they should give up,” said John Bolton, a US under-secretary of state allied with Wolfowitz.

On Friday, Bush stepped up the pressure by demanding that Syria hand over any Ba’ath party members or relatives of Saddam who might seek refuge. President Bashar al-Assad “needs to know we expect full co-operation”, the president said.

Behind the threats lies a conviction in US circles that Syria’s support for Hamas, Hezbollah and other radical Islamic groups is one of the main obstacles to a Middle East peace plan that would produce a Palestinian state.

“It is clear that the Pentagon’s policy group is intent on eliminating the Syrian government as a factor in the Arab- Israeli dispute,” said Walter Lang, a former Defence Intelligence Agency specialist.

Iraq’s collapse paves the way for renewed negotiations over Bush’s “road map” for peace. Tony Blair has long been pressing for increased American commitment as a means of defusing Arab anger over the attack on Iraq.

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