According to recent polls, US President Barack Obama’s popularity is on the decline, remarks Wajahat Ali for the Huffington Post. After helping to re-brand America and promising new levels of engagement with foreign countries, many people around the world have grown disenchanted with what they perceive as a lack of follow-through.

The ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the unflinching US commitment to Israel despite the Jewish state’s highly contentious policies towards its neighbors, and the US support of corrupt Arab regimes all contribute to the decline in Obama’s approval rating, especially among Muslim populations.

Ali remarks that nonetheless, “We must calmly step back and analyze Obama's current decline in popularity in light of the tremendous misfortune he inherited from the previous administration.” Ali comments that the polls do point toward a potential reconciliation between the US and Muslim communities, based on President Obama's promise to engage Muslims as partners and to end a "cycle of suspicion and discord" with them.

However, if Obama truly wishes "to seek a new beginning between the US and Muslims all around the world" as he promised in Cairo, writes Ali, “then he will have to firmly confront Israel over its continued humiliation of the Palestinian people.”

As a step in further engaging with the Muslim world, President Obama spoke via video conference to the US-Islamic World Forum in Doha, Qatar, reports Fox News. Obama talked about ending the war in Iraq, and his support for a two-state solution in the Middle East. Obama also announced that he has appointed Rashad Hussain to be a special envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Conference.

As the president emphasized the US partnership with the Muslim world on numerous levels, he reiterated his pledge to deepen these partnerships, and to develop others.

However, Leon T. Hadar, analyst and correspondent at The Huffington Post, concurs that the legacy left by the Bush administration remains a major obstacle in achieving the goals set at the start of Obama’s presidency.

Bush’s strikingly pro-Israel policies gave fuel to anti-American elements in Iran, and that administration’s demonstrated belligerence also gave Tehran excuse and incentive to further develop its nuclear program, Hadar writes. Consequently, Iran is now less likely to be receptive to new initiatives coming from the Obama administration.

“Less than vigorous economic recovery coupled with Obama's mounting domestic political problems ... has made it even more difficult for Obama to pursue his Mideast initiatives,” Hadar continues. He concludes that with the partisan divide growing steadily larger in Washington, Obama is more dependent than ever on support from conservatives in his party and Republicans, who often are stringently pro-Israeli, and by extension anti-Iran.

Indeed, in many respects, raising the diplomatic and economic pressure on Iran may have become the path of least political resistance for Obama, although is it broadly popular across the bipartisan board.