Mounting Arab concern over Iran's ambitions in the Middle East has created a new opportunity for peace in the Arab-Israeli conflict, one of the United Nation's most experienced regional negotiators said ahead of Friday’s quartet meeting in Washington.

Terje Roed-Larsen, speaking as head of the influential International Peace Academy but with a long history as a UN and Norwegian mediator, told the Financial Times there had been a flurry of Arab diplomacy driven by a fear of Iran and the sense that "a new peace process would be incredibly helpful to stabilise the region".