Iran not the Peace Process now the main concern

President Obama recently acknowledged that the US has been unable to move forward on any solution to the Israeli Palestinian issue saying that in the end the parties have got to want to achieve a solution themselves. Hilary Clinton has confirmed that she will stand down  as Secretary of State at the end of President Obama's first term. The clear focus of her discussions with President Shimon Peres and Prime Minister Netanyahu was the Iranian threat andClinton said that  America would use "all elements of its power" to prevent Iran going nuclear. and that the US was "on the same page" as Israel regarding the issue.

The US is arranging for two aircraft carriers to be based in the Middle East rather than one and in a very rare public speech the head of Britain's intellegence service MI6 , Sir John Sawyer was quoted by the Daily Telegraph as saying that MI6 had helped to forstall Iran's creation of a nuclear bomb but that it would probably be in a position to create a nuclear weapon by 2014. Israel has deemed that Iran's obtaing of a nuclear weapon would be a threat to the security of the Jewish state and it would take preemeptive action  against Israel if necessary..

The  powerlessness of the US to influence either side in Egypt,; the military in its confrontation with the Muslim Brotehrhood and its failure with the Middle East peace process is a matter of concern for the whole Arab world. It seems such a short time since President Obama visited Egypt andgave his Cairo speech reaching out to the islamic world. American influence has visibly withered. As Hosni Mubarak is sent back to prison from the military hospital  where he has been for a month  the US his former long term ally prepares for its presidential elections in November and the strong jewish lobby in Washington calls the tune as it always has done.