“Mubarak has seen his role supplanted by Saudi Arabia but also, largely, by Iran,....”

In the London Times, here

"... Obama hopes to tempt Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli leader, into making concessions to the Palestinians by holding out the prospect of a “grand alliance” of moderate Arab states against a nuclear Iran.Obama has chosen Cairo as the venue for an address to the Islamic world on June 4, partly to bolster the prestige of Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian president, as a power broker....

“Egypt has seen its role supplanted by Saudi Arabia but also, largely, by Iran,” said David Schenker of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “It is the logical country to take a pro-western leadership role.... ”There is enormous pressure on Obama and Netanyahu to avoid a clash before the Cairo speech. “Strange as it may seem,” said a veteran Israeli diplomat, “Obama is more dependent now on Netanyahu than vice versa, since one wrong move by Israel towards Iran, Hamas or Hezbollah and the Muslim world will turn against Obama.”