U.S. atop shifting Middle Eastern sands

What do the shifting sands of Middle Eastern power – especially in Egypt – mean for U.S. influence in the region?

Both Dimitri Simes, a Russian policy analyst, and Michele Dunne, a former senior State Department official, agree that U.S. influence is waning, and it is time for a shift in policy.

“It’s not just a decline in American power – it’s also a serious problem with the Obama Administration foreign policy,” Simes told CNN’s Hala Gorani on Tuesday. “It doesn’t seem to have a roadmap.”

Dunne said she may have a different prescription for the waning power than Simes, but agreed that the U.S. hasn’t always taken the right approach.

“The United States hasn’t stood clearly by the principles that President Obama himself articulated at the time of the Egyptian Revolution that the United States would support the growth of democracy there.”

Click above to see Gorani’s full conversation with Simes and Dunne, and hear whether they think the U.S. should cut off aid to Egypt.