Washington notes: Iran embargo, Quartet statement, AIPAC trial

Iran

If you missed this news item from the print edition, here's what Aluf Benn and I were reporting Wednesday: The Bush administration is planning to propose a new resolution against Iran at the United Nations Security Council that will call for stepping up sanctions against Tehran in an effort to thwart its nuclear ambitions. The U.S. will seek to include a partial embargo on arms sales in the resolution, with particular emphasis on the types of weapons that can be used by terrorists.

In recent weeks, Israel has carried out a diplomatic campaign against the transfer of weapons to terrorist organizations, in an effort to establish this concept as part of a new international norm. At the center of the campaign lie the transfer of arms from Iran and Syria to Hezbollah in Lebanon, that are viewed to be an expression of Tehran's policy of aggression. The head of the planning directorate at the IDF, Maj. Gen. Ido Nehushtan, visited Washington last week and presented American officials with data on the transfer of arms from Iran and Syria to Hezbollah.

Last week, a Foreign Ministry delegation headed by the deputy director for strategic affairs, Miriam Ziv, presented data on the arms transfers to Hezbollah to senior officials in the German Foreign Ministry. The Germans expressed some reservations about the validity of the data.

You can read some more details here. By the way, Ziv is now visiting Washington.

Quartet

In an analysis this last Sunday to the Hebrew print edition (it was not translated) I wrote that the administration was embarrassed and cornered by the Mecca agreement. The only position he could master for the time being is the "wait and see" position (an actual quote of the State Department spokesman).

Officials were biting their tongues as not to make public comments revealing the frustration and anger some of them felt toward the Palestinian Abbas and the Saudi king who brokered the agreement. If restraint is often considered as a sign of strength, I wrote, this time it is a sign of weakness.

Today, as the international quartet, comprising Russia, the United States, the European Union and the United Nations, met in Berlin to ponder what to do next, the wait-and-see approach became the official world-policy. On the one hand it "reaffirmed its statements regarding its support for a Palestinian government committed to nonviolence, recognition of Israel, and acceptance of previous agreements and obligations, including the Roadmap, and encouraged progress in this direction" (no to Mecca) - but on the other hand "expressed its appreciation for the role of King Abdallah of Saudi Arabia and the cessation of violence among Palestinians" (yes to Mecca).

Bottom line: "The Quartet reaffirmed its commitment to meet regularly and asked envoys to monitor developments and actions taken by the parties and to discuss the way ahead." Ah, and also to "schedule a meeting in the region soon." Rice must have told them that the weather is good.

AIPAC

Two news outlets covering the new rulings of Judge Ellis in the AIPAC trial had two very different outlooks on last week's events.

In the NY Sun, first to report on the rulings, it looked pretty bad for the defendants: "A federal judge in Virginia has dealt two blows to the defense of a pair of pro-Israel lobbyists accused of illegally trafficking in classified information. In one ruling this week, Judge Thomas Ellis III rejected defense motions to demand testimony from Israeli government officials. In another decision, the judge refused to suppress statements the FBI obtained in 2004 from the two lobbyists, Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman, who were later fired from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee."

But look how the trustworthy Secrecy News blog reported on the same ruling: "along the way, the court also elaborated its demanding view of the requirements that the prosecution must meet to win a conviction under the Espionage Act, and indicated what sorts of facts might tend to exculpate the defendants."