Edward Djerejian, who served eight American presidents on the Middle East, observes that the Chinese word for "crisis" has two ideograms.

“One ideogram is ‘danger’; the other ideogram is ‘opportunity,’" said Djerejian, who served as ambassador to Israel and Syria and assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs. “The dangerous situation in the Gulf now poses an opportunity.”

Seeing opportunity in crisis, and avoiding danger (and making bad situations worse), has been the hallmark of Djerejian’s distinguished record as a diplomat. His memoir of his career in the Foreign Service is appropriately titled "Danger and Opportunity: An American Ambassador's Journey Through the Middle East."

In an exclusive interview with Al-Monitor in Washington, DC, Djerejian, who is now director of Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy, explained that the Sept. 14 attack on the Saudi Aramco Abqaiq facility, which has been widely attributed to Iran despite Iranian denials, combined with a "disastrous" war in Yemen, provides a new opening for diplomacy in the Gulf.