May was a busy month for Arab diplomats.
Twelve years after the Arab League suspended Syria’s membership, Syrian President Bashar Assad was officially welcomed back into the fold. As the protracted war in Yemen shows signs of winding down, Iran and Saudi Arabia appear headed toward reconciliation. Meanwhile, Egypt brokered a cease-fire between Israel and Islamic Jihad and Saudi Arabia has emerged as a key player in the efforts to end the civil war in Sudan.
What is remarkable about these recent developments is the West’s near-total absence. While Western involvement in the Middle East has fluctuated over the years, the United States and its European allies have spearheaded the vast majority of diplomatic breakthroughs in the region since the end of the Cold War, including peace between Israel and Jordan, the normalization of relations between Israel and the Gulf states and the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.