Things have changed in the Middle East, now that Saddam Hussein is gone from power and a fledgling democracy is being born. 9-11 shook that part of the world more than any other place, and we are seeing that people there are beginning to stop claiming things are impossible (the neo narcist-liberal mantra which comes off sounding simply like bunch of Eeyores) and are starting to ask what is possible. And it seems we may get a glimpse of what is possible at this year’s Arab summit:

The main reason for cautious optimism about the Riyadh summit is that Saudi Arabia, the Arab world’s financial and religious heavyweight, is putting real muscle behind its diplomacy. It has taking the lead in negotiating deals between the warring Palestinian factions, Fatah and Hamas, and in engaging in a dialogue with Iran to avert the threat of a Sunni-Shiite conflict across the region. No one dares offend Saudi Arabia, the region’s leading power-broker, not even Israel or the United States.

Will there be quick solutions? Of course not, those mythical events only exist on TV. But the fact is the vacuum left by Hussein is giving others a chance to move discussions in different directions than has been the stalemeted position for decades.

The other repurcussion is Iran’s stumbling implosion on the world stage. Left as one of the few strong powers after Hussein’s fall, Iran has squandered all of that potential trying to be the regional bully. Interestingly, if they have followed Libya’s example and turned from their nuclear weapon obsessions (nuclear power has been available to them as an option throughout negotiations), Iran would be in an extremely strong position now too. But they have gone off track and, if this reporting is accurate at all, they are naively trying to wait out the crumbling of their regime. It seems the internal fractures are becoming more and more pronounced in Iran.