When Condoleezza Rice, US secretary of state, flew out of the Middle East on Wednesday after a tour of the region to mobilise support for the White House’s controversial new Iraq strategy, Arab diplomats were left hoping, rather than expecting, that it might actually achieve something.

Two of the US’s most important Sunni allies in the region – Egypt and Saudi Arabia – gave cautious backing to the initiative, while a third, Jordan, reiterated the need for Iraq’s Sunni to be given a greater role in their country’s political processes.