U.S. hits Iran with new sanctions while urging Israel against military response

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• William Brangham:

  Today, the U.S. imposed new sanctions on Iran in response to Tehran's unprecedented attack last weekend on Israel. The U.S. is also vetoing an attempt in the U.N. Security Council to create an independent Palestinian state, all this as Israel continues to debate how and when to respond to Iran's attack.

  Nick Schifrin looks at the U.S.' attempt to prevent even more regional escalation.

• Nick Schifrin:

  William, this afternoon, President Biden and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's top national security aides talked about Israel's potential response to the Iranian attack.

  U.S. officials have made it clear they think Israel should not respond militarily and are trying to increase economic and diplomatic pressure on Iran to help make their case.

  For the lay of the land in the U.S. and the region, we get two views.

  Ambassador Dennis Ross played leading roles in the Middle East peace process for more than 12 years. He is now the counselor and a distinguished fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a Washington think tank. And Khaled Elgindy has participated in past Israeli-Palestinian negotiations and is now the director of the Middle East Institute's Program on Palestine and Israeli-Palestinian Affairs.

  Thanks very much. Welcome, both of you, to the "NewsHour."

  Ambassador Ross, let me start with you, and let's start in New York.

  The U.S. is vetoing a resolution that would have allowed the state of Palestine to join the U.N. as a full member. U.S. allies and fellow permanent member the United Kingdom is abstaining and France is voting in favor. What's your response to those votes?

  Dennis Ross, Former U.S. Envoy to Middle East: Well, I'm not surprised that the Biden administration is going to veto it.

  I think they look at this as not just a symbolic move, but at this point the Palestinians don't look like a state. And so I don't think they're prepared to recognize it as such in a U.N. context. I also think they see this as not necessarily connected to the diplomacy that they're engaged in right now with the Saudis.

  They clearly still have an interest in trying to reach a Saudi-Israeli normalization deal. I think they're negotiating exactly what that might mean, not only in terms of bilateral U.S.-Saudi issues, in terms of defense treaty, the Saudi development of a nuclear industry. But I think they're also talking about what would the Palestinian component of this understanding be?

  What would the Israelis have to do in terms of recognizing some kind of move or commitment towards Palestinian statehood? I think, while they're negotiating that, they're not interested in having a symbolic move at the Security Council.

• Nick Schifrin:

  Khaled Elgindy, what's your response to the U.S. vote in New York?

• Khaled Elgindy, Middle East Institute:

  The U.S. vote is not at all unexpected. I mean, we expected that the United States would veto this resolution. They have said it. They have said all along that the only possible way for a Palestinian state to emerge is through direct bilateral negotiations, which means essentially that Israel has a permanent veto over Palestinian self-determination.

  And so this is an attempt by Palestinians maybe to do an end run around that principle. But I think even they understood that this was not going to pass. I think President Abbas has pursued this for his own reasons. I think he's looking more and more obsolete, given the destruction in Gaza. He's unable to influence either the military or the diplomatic equation and is looking for some way to be relevant.

• Nick Schifrin:

  Dennis Ross, as I mentioned, some of this effort by the U.S. to try and tamp down escalation in the region is economic.

  New sanctions announced on Iran today, on Iran's drone program, Iran's defense industrial base, including steel production, the first time that those sanctions have been imposed in about three years. Do those kinds of actions help convince the Israeli government not to respond to Iran's attack with another military attack?

• Dennis Ross:

  Look, I think it probably helps.

  But I'm not sure it's enough. I think the Israelis would probably be more impressed if we were closing some of the loopholes on sanctions as it relates to Iran being able to sell its oil; 91 percent of their oil sales are going to the Chinese. If we were doing more to basically prevent those sales, convincing the Chinese either not to go ahead or being prepared to sanction Chinese companies, that would probably be more impressive to the Israelis.

• Nick Schifrin:

  Khaled Elgindy, do you believe that President Biden is doing enough to try and influence Israeli behavior, whether toward Iran or in Gaza?

• Khaled Elgindy:

  Well, I agree with Ambassador Ross that it's probably not enough to convince the Israelis not to go off on their own or to pursue a military response.

  And I think they're going to leverage that. I think they're going to try and extract more from the United States, quite possibly up to and including the oil sanctions that Ambassador Ross mentioned. I mean, that would be definitely a game changer as far as Israel's decision-making. But we're not quite there yet.

• Nick Schifrin:

  Ambassador Ross, there are some Democrats who are wanting President Biden to use more leverage on Bibi Netanyahu when it comes to Gaza especially and condition military aid until Israel takes certain steps when it comes to the war on Gaza.

  Do you believe the U.S. should condition military aid?

• Dennis Ross:

  No, I have not been in favor of conditioning military aid, especially right after Israel has just been targeted with more than 350 cruise missiles, drones, and ballistic missiles. I think that would be the wrong signal to send right now, especially vis-a-vis the Iranians and many of their proxies, including Hezbollah.

• Nick Schifrin:

  Khaled Elgindy, do you believe that the U.S. can exert pressure on Israel, especially when it comes to Gaza and how Israel wages that war, separate from how Israel responds to Iran?

• Khaled Elgindy:

  Yes, absolutely. There's no question that the lack of consequences is precisely why we have this humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in Gaza, where we're now at the fastest any population has reached the stage of famine in recorded history.

  So there's a lot that the United States could do. It should. It can and should condition military assistance. At a very minimum, it could hold up the offensive weapons, the massive 2,000-pound bombs that do what President Biden called indiscriminate damage in Gaza and that have caused so much civilian death and suffering.

  So, I think there are ways to condition aid that don't necessarily affect Israel's ability to mount a defense against an Iranian threat, but that would inhibit its ability to continue to cause this mass death and destruction in Gaza.

• Nick Schifrin:

  Khaled Elgindy, Dennis Ross, thanks very much to you both.

• Dennis Ross:

  Sure. Good to be with you.

• Khaled Elgindy:

  Thank you.