The Ethiopian government has disputed allegations that its Prime Minister Meles Zenawi advised the US Administration that toppling the Sudanese government of president Al-Bashir is the "preferred option" for Washington. Allegations of Zenawi s advice were revealed by the whistle-blowing website Wikileaks in a diplomatic cable detailing discussions that took place on 30 January 2009 between the Ethiopian PM and Acting Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Phil Carter in the presence of the Director of Sudan Programs Group (SPG) at the US State Department Tim Shortley.

The latest release of US diplomatic cables by WikiLeaks contains allegations that Sudanese president Omar al Bashir may have stolen $9 billion from his country and deposited it in London with the Lloyds Banking Group.

The US has worked discreetly to block the supply of Iranian and Syrian weapons to the Palestinian movement Hamas and Lebanon's Hezbollah, pressuring Arab governments not to co-operate in many cases where the requests were based on secret intelligence provided by Israel.