A source close to the State Department transition tells us that, contrary to earlier reports, Richard Haass, W.'s former director of policy planning (and current head of the Council on Foreign Relations) will not be handling the Middle East portfolio for Hillary at State. (Spencer Ackerman is hearing similar things.) This source also tells us that Dennis Ross, to whom the initial reports had given the Iran portfolio, will be overseeing both Arab-Israeli issues and Iran.
--Noam Scheiber