The author Michael Slackman reports that, with the Obama promise of a new drive for a solution to the Arab/Israeli conflict in tatters (following Hillary Clinton's failure to persuade Israel to cease building illegal settlements on Palestinian land), the influence of the United States' Arab allies in the region, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, has been damaged and is in decline. Saudi Arabia, in particular, believes that the only way to restore Arab influence is through the unity of the Arab world but, since Syria believes it has more to gain from continued conflict than from peace, Arab unity seems a forlorn hope, a hope further imperilled by Iran's own ambitions in the Muslim world.
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