Everybody hates Iran but they daren't say so

"It's fair to say there is no debate in the international community." So said Hillary Clinton in Bahrain on Friday. She was talking about the undesirability of Iran making a nuclear bomb. It was quite a statement, given how hard she had to strive to create consensus for sanctions on Iran this year. She may want to thank Julian Assange for her new confidence.

We now know from those leaked cables that, while many of Iran's Arab neighbours are reluctant to say so, they are as appalled by its actions as the US. "By whatever means necessary," was how Bahrain's King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa put it, telling a US diplomat that Iran must be stopped. King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia exhorted the US to "cut off the head of the snake". And President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's reaction to the cables? The leaks are an American plot.

Benjamin Netanyahu isn't so bad after all

As politicians around the world scramble to contain the fallout from embarrassing disclosures in leaked US diplomatic cables, Israel finds itself in the unusual position of emerging almost entirely unscathed to watch from the sidelines.

Benjamin Netanyahu will have been surprised to receive praise from the harassed founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, who called the Israeli prime minister a "sophisticated politician" and "not a naïve man" who believes that "the result of this publication... will lead to some kind of increase in the peace process in the Middle East and particularly in relation to Iran".

Israel has come out so clean that some just can't help but sniff conspiracy in the air. Turkey suggested Israel was itself behind the leaks.

"One should analyse why this happened, who did it and why, who is benefitting and who is being harmed," said Turkish interior minister Besir Atalay. "It seems to us that the country which... is not mentioned much, especially in the Middle East, or which this development seems to favour, is Israel."

European politicians are a bunch of stereotypes

Europe's classic stereotypes are alive and well and at the head of governments across the continent, if the confidential reports sent to Washington by US diplomats can be believed.

Dull, plodding Germans, over-excitable Frenchmen and corrupt, macho Italians featured prominently in the Wiki­Leaks European political leadership line-up. The US embassy in Berlin dismissed chancellor Angela Merkel as "risk-averse and rarely creative". French president Nicolas Sarkozy was described by the state department's team as a typical emotional Frenchman. "Just being in the same room with Sarkozy is enough to make anyone's stress level rise," wrote one diplomat. However, Silvio Berlusconi took the biscuit. US diplomats in Rome suspected he was profiting "personally and handsomely" from huge kick-backs he was alleged to be receiving from Moscow for signing energy deals with Russia. "Berlusconi admires Putin's macho and authoritarian style of government which he believes matches his own," is how one US diplomat put it.

Alcohol is a despot's best friend

The drinking habits of foreign leaders fascinate the US and the leaked cables attempt to keep Washington informed of developments on the liquid front.

When US deputy secretary of state James B Steinberg met one of the most powerful officials in Beijing, Dai Bingguo, the talk turned to Kim Jong-Il. The cable which followed chronicled Dai's remarks that, although "flabby old chap" Kim had had a stroke, he had retained his reputation as "quite a good drinker".

A tale of alcoholic excess was also relayed from the Moscow embassy. US diplomats flew down to Dagestan for the wedding of oil baron Gadzhi Makhachev.

"The alcohol consumption before, during and after this Muslim wedding was stupendous," the cable confided. "Amidst an alcohol shortage, Gadzhi had flown in from the Urals thousands of bottles of Beluga Export vodka."

The state department was told: "There was also entertainment... [But] Gadzhi's main act, the Syrian-born singer Avraam Russo, could not make it because he was shot a few days before the wedding."

Assange claims death threats

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said he and colleagues were taking steps to protect themselves after death threats.

Assange's lawyer said he would also fight any attempt to extradite his client to face questions over alleged sexual misconduct, adding that he believed foreign powers were influencing Sweden.