WASHINGTON — The White House shook up its Middle East advisory staff this week by appointing Elliott Abrams — a figure involved in the Reagan-era Iran-Contra scandal — its point-man on Arab-Israeli issues. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice announced the appointment Monday.
Abrams will serve as special assistant to President Bush and senior director for Near East and North African affairs, including Arab-Israeli relations and U.S. efforts to promote peace and security in the region.
The appointment came as a surprise to many Middle East observers in Washington. Since the departure of Bruce Riedel from the post a year ago, the National Security Council had been short of Middle East experts. Many names were bandied about as possible replacements, but Abrams, who has been heading up the NSC’s office for democracy, human rights and international operations since June 2001, did not appear in the mix.
Flynt Leverett, who had been handling many of the Arab-Israeli issues solo, will continue to work with Abrams as the senior director for Middle East initiatives on the National Security Council.
Zalmay Khalilzad, who had overall responsibility for Near Eastern affairs, was made a special envoy “for free Iraqis” and will be involved in preparations for a post-Saddam Hussein Iraq.
As an assistant secretary who handled Latin America during the Reagan administration, Abrams, a Jew, advocated military support for Nicaraguan contras, despite Congress’s ban on such support. He pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor counts of withholding information from Congress and was subsequently pardoned by President George H. W. Bush in 1992.
Despite the scandal, Abrams has remained a significant player on Washington’s political scene and a persistent advocate of strong American leadership. He has also been one of the voices warning often of the threats posed to American interests by rogue nations and Islamic extremism. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the leading pro-Israel lobby group, welcomed
the appointment. “Elliott Abrams has no tolerance for terrorist regimes and is a valuable asset to the president’s foreign policy team,” said AIPAC spokeswoman Rebecca Needler.
A former president of the conservative Ethics and Public Policy Center, which according to the center’s Web site was created “to clarify and reinforce the bond between the Judeo-Christian moral tradition and the public debate over domestic and foreign policy issues,” Abrams served as chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom in addition to his jobs in government.
He is not known as an Arab-Israeli specialist, but people close to him said Abrams would be a strong advocate of the core principle of President Bush’s June 24 Middle East speech that a diplomatic peace process can only come after a change in leadership in the Palestinian Authority.