Despite the rhetoric about bringing “freedom to the peoples of the Middle East”, the Bush administration’s “new approach” to the region looks suspiciously like the ones his predecessors pursued. It is hoped in Washington that an alignment with Sunni monarchs and authoritarian regimes will contain Syria, Iran and Hizbollah. Gone are the heady days of calling for transformation of the Middle East, as the US once more finds solace in the complacent House of Saud and the stagnant Mubarak dynasty in Egypt.

The Bush administration has ­dispensed with the notion that reform in the region will bring to power political forces that will advance the US agenda for the Middle East. It seems far easier to deal with the existing strongmen and monarchs than to try to negotiate with a variety of Muslim Brotherhood-style parties. Moreover, at a time when Washington is calling for Egyptian support to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and hoping that the Gulf sheikdoms would assist Washington in isolating Iran, it is hardly going to press for free elections and political reform.