Arab leaders who gather for yearly summits have enough trouble dealing with the Middle East’s running disputes. But this week’s Arab League meeting in Khartoum takes place amid a build-up of crises that have left the region even more turbulent than usual, and the search for a meaningful consensus among leaders more elusive.

“Normally you have one or two problems in the region that are complicating things – Palestine and another issue,” says a senior Arab official. “We’re now at a point where we have five big issues and we don’t know how governments can juggle them. The region has never experienced so many problems at the same time.”