Winner: USA. Loser: Iran.
Right there in a nutshell, you have the results of the most recent conflict in Gaza.
The ceasefire agreement has proved that – as before – the United States is the authoritative power when it comes to order in the Middle East.
At the same time, the Gaza truce showed that the Obama administration's foreign policy strategy, largely honed by outgoing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton– of exercising American power indirectly by working through regional networks – can bear fruit.
The United States put Egypt in charge of negotiations between Israel and Hamas, thereby taking the Islamic Republic of Iran, which up to now has been the Palestinian terror organization’s main sponsor, out of the equation.
The architecture of Washington’s plans for Middle East security is starting to take shape: Despite – or perhaps because of – Egypt’s domestic turbulence, the country is to be developed into a credible guarantor for at least a provisional Israeli-Palestinian peace.
Through Cairo, and with the support of Saudi Arabia and Qatar, Hamas is to be weaned off Iranian influence – indeed the weaning is part and parcel of the peace process.
Because of the significant influence in the Arab world to be won for Egypt by his cooperation, the Islamist Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi has been playing his part in the American-scripted scenario not only reliably but also very convincingly.
What has also emerged is that Egypt, although it is drifting in the direction of Islamic theocracy, still relies on American aid: without the billions of dollars that the U.S. pumps in, the Egyptian military would be reduced to the level of a carnival troupe.
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