[zoneouddy]

By Arshad Mohammed | REUTERS, WASHINGTON | Sun Jun 17, 2012 | 1:15am EDT

Events in Egypt, Bahrain and Syria illustrate the limits of U.S. influence in the Middle East following
the Arab Spring and a U.S. reluctance, at times, to exercise such clout as it has.

Court rulings in Egypt and in Bahrain this week, analysts say, show the ruling authorities' desire to
maintain their grip on power and the United States' limited ability to shape events despite its general
support for democracy.

After decades in which Washington has been the region's dominant outside player, deploying its
military to guarantee the flow of oil and its diplomatic muscle to advance peace between Israel and its
Arab neighbors, the pro-democracy demonstrations of the Arab Spring appear to have changed the
equation.



President Barack Obama's early hopes of brokering an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal have foundered.

And U.S. blunders in Iraq, where violence persists nine years after a U.S.-led invasion toppled Saddam
Hussein, have also eroded U.S. credibility, Middle East analysts said.

Egypt's supreme court ruled on Thursday to dissolve the newly-elected parliament that is dominated by
the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood and to allow ousted leader Hosni Mubarak's last prime minister to run
in this weekend's presidential race.

The rulings are widely viewed as an effort by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), the
military authorities who have ruled the country since Mubarak's February 11, 2011 ouster, to undercut
the Brotherhood and to strengthen its own hand.

In Bahrain, an important U.S. ally in the Gulf that hosts the U.S. Fifth Fleet, a court reduced sentences
against nine medical professionals and acquitted nine others but the United States said it was "deeply
disappointed" by the verdict and suggested that those involved were punished because of their political
views.

The doctors and nurses, all Shi'ite, say they were victimized for treating protesters against Bahrain's
ruling Sunni family, which backed by Saudi-led Gulf troops, crushed a protest movement led by the
Shi'ite majority last year.

And in Syria, having for now ruled out a military intervention without international support, the United
States has been unable to stop Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's brutal crackdown on anti-government
protests.

The United Nations says Syrian forces have killed 10,000 people in a crackdown on protest against
Assad's rule. A U.N. monitoring mission, whose presence the United States hoped might help quell the
strife, on Saturday suspended its operations.

It is unclear what Washington plans to do to try to end the conflict given Russian reluctance to see
Assad ousted.