Winners It was not for a scoop that Iraqi journalist Montadhar Al-Zaidi became so popular across the Arab world. It was rather for his assault on US President George W Bush that Al-Zaidi became a household name in the Arab world. The story of Al-Zaidi throwing his shoes in the face of Bush at the outset of the last press conference in Baghdad. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: One thing this Iranian president has to be credited for is that he formulated, or may be just implemented, a policy that managed to prove his country a tough nut to crack. All US and Israeli threats to attack Iran's nuclear programme had to be eaten. President Bashar Al-Assad: He protected his den, while bowing gracefully to the wind. Al-Assad managed to overlook Israeli military attacks on targets inside Syria to avoid an imbalanced military confrontation. He also ignored the harsh criticism to which he was subjected in many an Arab quarter, only to play his cards right and get French President Nicolas Sarkozy to take Syria out of the cold on one fine July afternoon at the entrance of the Versailles. Qatar: It was certainly Qatar and its shrewd and financially influential Prime Minister Hammad bin Jassim that made the deal of Doha possible. Dotting the I's and crossing the T's of the all but ready Lebanese reconciliation was only the beginning of a growing and clearly expanding Qatari diplomacy that is now heavily engaged in promoting Sudanese reconciliation while aggressively awaiting the moment to jump on the Palestinian reconciliation file that has so far been, for the most part, a primarily Egyptian zone of interest and influence. Losers Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has been through much. It was a year where his dreams, too rosy as they were, were shattered, to either get the US to secure a final peace deal between Palestinians and Israel, or to allow for the establishment of a Palestinian state. As many had warned, no matter how many the concessions -- and those were by no means few -- that Abbas made to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice over dinners held at Olmert's house, and no matter the harsh security tactics he employed against Hamas, the Palestinian president failed to get what he wanted, as little as it was. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert : Israeli prime ministers failed as well. Olmert used a wide range of tactics to coerce Palestinians, shrug Egyptians with one hand and pat them with the other, seduce the Syrians and lobby the Americans. Still, he failed to get what he said he would deliver: Ahmed Abul-Gheit : This was not the best year for the top Egyptian diplomat who was as harshly criticised, and few were supportive, over his overt threat, made in January, to "break the leg" of any Palestinian who tries to break through the Rafah crossing point into Egyptian territory, as much as for his covert criticism -- some suggested incitement -- against Hamas and Hizbullah throughout and at the end of the year. Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir : The violations in Darfur, among other parts of Sudan, and the political miscalculations that the Sudanese regime got engrossed in have to be reversed if 2009 is not to be as bad for Al-Bashir and Sudan as 2008.
