This Is Diplomacy?

A Trap?

In their press briefings yesterday, Rice and national security adviser Stephen Hadley not coincidentally used the exact same phrase to describe what they expect will happen after the resolution is approved: "We'll see who is for peace and who isn't."

Of course, if you believe Lebanese officials, that's because the resolution is a trap.

Nora Boustany and Edward Cody write in The Washington Post that Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora called the resolution "'impractical' because it would leave Israeli occupation troops and Hezbollah militiamen face to face in the border hills, virtually certain to keep fighting."

Nedra Pickler writes for the Associated Press: "Security Council experts went over the draft for several hours Sunday, and diplomats said there was a widespread feeling that it did not sufficiently take Lebanon's concerns into account."

About Not Talking

Glenn Kessler and Michael Abramowitz write in The Washington Post: "The Bush administration's policy of refusing to engage with nations and groups linked to terrorism, including Syria, Iran and Palestinian factions, has sharply limited U.S. maneuvering room during the war between Israel and Hezbollah, according to former administration officials and outside experts.

"Iran is Hezbollah's prime sponsor, and Syria is the key conduit for the flow of missiles that have rained on Israeli territory -- facts that experts say make those countries essential to achieving a lasting solution. But after nearly six years in office, the administration has had increasingly limited contacts with those countries, if such contacts exist at all. Former officials charge that the administration has missed numerous opportunities to encourage Syria and Iran to cooperate more closely with U.S. interests."

Renée Montagne of NPR talked to former deputy secretary of state Richard L. Armitage on July 26: "Armitage says U.S. officials haven't used 'all the levers' in finding a solution to the crisis, including having Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice talk directly to the Syrian government. Syria and Iran are considered to have influence on Hezbollah.

"'I think [the Syrians] want to get involved,' Armitage says. 'I think they want to become more central to the solution and you might as well give them the opportunity.'

"'We get a little lazy, I think, when we spend all our time as diplomats talking to our friends and not to our enemies,' he adds."

Here's Wolf Blitzer talking to Hadley yesterday on CNN:

"BLITZER: Will you speak directly to Syria and Iran, to appeal to them to use their influence to get Hezbollah to stop launching rockets against northern Israel?

"HADLEY: Well, in some sense, Wolf, we just did. In the comments we've made publicly, there are a number of countries who we are in touch with who are sending that message. And we are sending that message as well."