In the West Bank, the secretary of State says Israeli demolition plans for an archaeological project in East Jerusalem would violate terms of the U.S.-backed 'road map' peace plan.

Reporting from Ramallah, West Bank -- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, in an unusual public criticism of Israel, said Wednesday that its plan to destroy dozens of Palestinian homes in Arab East Jerusalem was "unhelpful" and contrary to Israel's obligations under a U.S.-backed peace plan.

Clinton, closing her first foray into Middle East peacemaking, said the implications of the decision to raze the homes for an archaeological project "go far beyond" the 88 homes affected by Israel's plans. She said she would raise that issue, as well as concern over the growth of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, with Israeli officials.

Despite the criticism of Israel, Clinton moved cautiously during a two-day visit to Jerusalem and the West Bank that marked the beginning of her effort to push for a "comprehensive" peace effort between Israel and its neighbors.

Clinton also stressed in an appearance with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni on Tuesday that U.S. officials understood Israel's security concerns, and she called on the militant group Hamas to halt its rocket fire from the Gaza Strip into Israel.

Clinton said she intended to air concerns with the Israelis only in a "constructive" way.

"We are raising these issues in a way we hope is helpful," she said.

Israeli authorities have been embroiled in controversy for years over plans for an East Jerusalem archaeological site devoted to Jewish history and sites associated with the biblical King David. The homeowners in the Silwan quarter have now received eviction notices saying the buildings were built illegally and are to be torn down.

The battle is part of a larger struggle for control of Jerusalem. Israel declares the city as its capital, and Palestinians envision East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state.

The planned destruction of Palestinian homes was not Clinton's only criticism of Israel during the trip. She also said that she had expressed concern in "numerous settings" to Israelis about restrictions on the passage of goods into Gaza.

Clinton held meetings with top Israeli and Palestinian officials beginning Tuesday morning. Her main intent, aides said, was to listen and start building key relationships.

On Tuesday, she met with Israeli Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu of the right-wing Likud party. Both vowed to cooperate closely, according to one participant, despite their apparent differences on the goal of building a state for Palestinians.

"Both sides are quite optimistic about the extent of cooperation they can reach," said Zalman Shoval, Likud's foreign affairs chief, who attended the Clinton-Netanyahu meeting.

In Tehran, Khamenei spoke strongly against U.S. and Israeli efforts.

"The deliverance of Palestine cannot be obtained through begging from the United Nations or the dominating powers, and more so from the usurper regime," he said in a speech at the conference on the Palestinian cause, according to the official Islamic Republic News Agency. "The sole path of its deliverance is through resistance and fortitude."

The U.S. and Iran back opposing Palestinian factions. Washington supports Abbas' Fatah movement in the West Bank, and Tehran backs Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip and refuses to recognize Israel.

Events such as Wednesday's conference take place frequently in Iran and typically are venues for heated anti-Israeli rhetoric. But Iranian leaders stopped well short of threatening Israel or calling for its military destruction.

Khamenei reiterated calls for an election that would allow all those with a stake in Israel and the Palestinian territories, including Jews and Palestinians living abroad, to vote for a government.

Abbas said the Iranian complaints further divided Palestinians and said he rejected them "utterly and completely."

Clinton said Iran's leaders were supporting terrorism, threatening other countries and seeking to spread intimidation "as far as they think their voice can reach." U.S. officials still plan an attempt to talk with Tehran.

Also Wednesday, an Israeli airstrike killed a field commander of the Islamic Jihad group in Gaza who had directed rocket attacks on Israel, officials on both sides said.




By Paul Richter, Los Angeles Times, March 5, 2009

BRUSSELS, March 4 (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Wednesday if Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir believed he had been wrongly charged for war crimes in Darfur he could "have his day in court".

Speaking to reporters en route to Brussels, Clinton said she hoped the indictment issued earlier by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague would not lead to "increased violence" on the part of Sudan's government.

"President Bashir would have a chance to have his day in court if he believes that the indictment is wrongly charged. He can certainly contest it," said Clinton.

"I certainly hope that it does not lead to any additional actions of violence or punishment on the part of the Bashir government," added Clinton.

The top U.S. diplomat said the ICC had issued its indictment based on a very long investigation and the case was now in the judicial system "properly so".

Bashir was indicted on seven counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity but a panel of judges said it had insufficient grounds to charge him for genocide in a conflict that U.N. officials say has killed as many as 300,000 people since 2003.

"Governments and individuals who either conduct or condone atrocities of any kind, as we have seen year after year in Sudan, have to be held accountable," she said.

While not a member of the ICC, the former Bush administration said it would cooperate wherever needed with the investigation into atrocities in Darfur.

The Obama administration is reviewing whether to sign up to the ICC as part of a review of foreign policy on many fronts.




By Sue Pleming, Reuters, March 4, 2009

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged the Brazilian government on Wednesday to push for the return of an 8-year-old boy to his U.S. father, who says his son was abducted illegally more than four years ago.

Clinton, speaking in Jerusalem on NBC's "Today" program, said she had raised the case at the "highest levels" of the Brazilian government and urged it to grant U.S. citizen David Goldman custody of his son, Sean.

"Mr. Goldman has, under every known law of international adoption, followed the rules," she said. "He's come in, he's made a claim, which is certainly a paramount claim that as the biological father he has every right to have custody of his son."

Goldman's wife, Bruna, took Sean on vacation to her native Brazil in 2004, then divorced him and stayed there in what Goldman says was a case of international child abduction. She died last year in childbirth and her new husband is refusing to return the boy to Goldman, who lives in New Jersey.

The new husband, a lawyer, is living with the boy in Rio de Janeiro, where Goldman saw him for the first time in four years last month.

Brazilian local courts have declined to grant Goldman custody, despite both Brazil and the United States being signatories to the 1980 Hague Abduction Convention.

The treaty states that a child taken to one country by a parent in violation of the other parent's custody rights should be promptly returned to their original country pending court rulings.

The case is due to be heard in a federal court in Brazil.

An official at Brazil's foreign ministry, asked about Clinton's comments, said the issue was a judicial one and would be decided by the courts. The official confirmed that Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim had discussed the case with Clinton during their meeting in Washington last month.

Clinton, who compared the case to the high-profile dispute between the United States and Cuba in 2000 over Cuban boy Elian Gonzalez, said there were 46 such cases involving Brazil.

"A child belongs with his family and there is no reason why David Goldman should not get his child back, and we're hoping that will be resolved very soon," Clinton said. "Obviously if it's not, we'll continue to raise it with the Brazilian government."

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is due to visit U.S. President Barack Obama in Washington on March 17 for their first talks since Obama became president in January.

By Stuart Grudgings and Maria-Pia Palermo, Reuters, March 4, 2009

Iran is not on Hillary Rodham Clinton's itinerary in her first swing through the Middle East and Europe as secretary of state. But it is clearly, and constantly, on her mind.

After three days of meetings in Egypt, Israel and the West Bank, Clinton said she was struck by the depth of fear about Iran, and the extent to which officials say it meddles in their affairs.

"There is a great deal of concern about Iran from this whole region," she said Wednesday. "It is clear Iran intends to interfere with the internal affairs of all of these people, and try to continue their efforts to fund terrorism, whether it is Hezbollah or Hamas or other proxies."

The president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, complained after a meeting with Clinton that the Iranian government, which issued critical comments by its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was trying to deepen divisions between Palestinians.

Later, as Clinton flew to Europe for meetings at NATO and with the Russian foreign minister, she again invoked Iran, saying the threat of a missile strike by Tehran could be a basis for cooperation between the United States and Russia on the contentious issue of missile defense.

"Iran poses a threat to Europe and Russia," she said. "How do we cooperate on that? This is a very rich area for exploration."

Clinton did not comment on the letter that President Barack Obama sent to President Dmitri Medvedev of Russia in which Obama offered to scale back a planned missile defense system for Eastern Europe in return for Russia's cooperation in efforts to halt Iran's nuclear program.

But Clinton said she believed that Moscow was beginning to accept the argument that the missile system was not aimed at Russia, but was meant to protect Europe from a threatening neighbor.

"Iran is the name we put to them," she said. "But it is a kind of stand-in for the range of threats that we foresee."

Clinton's hawkish words seemed designed to keep Tehran on the defensive while the Obama administration completes its review of Iran policy. That could happen in the next two weeks, officials said.

In a meeting Monday with an Arab foreign minister, Clinton expressed skepticism that Iran would respond positively to the Obama administration's offer of direct negotiations.

Her announcement that the United States would send envoys to Syria to begin talks may be designed, in part, to put pressure on Tehran. While she declined to elaborate on the visit, she said, "We believe that there is an opportunity for Syria to play a constructive role, if it chooses to do so."

Despite her tough tone, Clinton said the United States was open to working with the Iranians in stabilizing Afghanistan, their eastern neighbor. During the early days of the war in Afghanistan, she noted, Iranian officials consulted daily with their American counterparts.

In traveling from Jerusalem to the West Bank, Clinton reiterated support for the Palestinian Authority, which she said was the only legitimate representative of the Palestinian people.

Clinton said she pressed the Israeli government to open border crossings to war-ravaged Gaza to allow deliveries of humanitarian goods. And she criticized an Israeli plan to demolish Palestinian homes in Jerusalem.

While the United States is presenting a uniform message of energetic engagement in the Middle East, Clinton has adjusted her public statements to different audiences in Jerusalem and the West Bank.

"We have obviously expressed concern about the border crossings," she said. "We want humanitarian aid to get into Gaza in sufficient amounts to help the suffering people of Gaza."

Clinton also spoke out against Israeli plans to demolish houses belonging to Palestinians in East Jerusalem. She said the orders, issued by the city authorities, were "unhelpful" to the peace process and a violation of the "road map" to which the Israeli government has committed itself.

Israelis claim the houses were built illegally. The Palestinian owners said they were unable to obtain building permits. Israel ordered the demolition of 88 homes last week and an additional 55 this week. The dispute has become a microcosm of the larger battle over Jerusalem.

"It is clearly a matter of deep concern to those who are directly affected," Clinton said.

When she was asked about the border crossings in Jerusalem on Tuesday, Clinton said Israel faced a dilemma in loosening its controls, since Hamas continued to launch rockets at southern Israeli towns.

And she said nothing about the demolition of Palestinian houses.

By Mark Landler, The New York Times, March 4, 2009

BRUSSELS (AFP) - US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton consulted NATO and European allies late Wednesday on Washington's new strategy to combat the insurgency in Afghanistan.

Her talks here will also focus on Russia and the likely unfreezing of high-level relations with NATO, sparked by Moscow's decision to send troops into Georgia last August.

"I am looking to demonstrate that the United States intend to be an active participant within NATO and with our NATO partners," she told reporters travelling with her to Brussels, ahead of the closed-door dinner talks.

"I will certainly be raising issues that are important to the United States such as our plan going forward for Afghanistan and Pakistan, the NATO-Russia relationship, some of the old problems and new threats together".

The United States and its NATO allies are battling to halt a Taliban-led insurgency that has severely dented their efforts to spread democracy and foster reconstruction throughout Afghanistan.

President Barack Obama has demanded a strategy review focused on fighting extremism in the strife-torn country, where he is deploying 17,000 extra troops, and in neighbouring Pakistan as he winds down US involvement in Iraq.

"This will be an important opportunity for an exchange of views," NATO spokesman James Appathurai told reporters a few hours before Clinton touched down in Brussels.

He said Clinton "will update allies on the US review, where it is, and where it is going."

The previous administration under president George W. Bush had a strained relationship with some European allies caused by the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

But Obama's election was warmly welcomed in European capitals, where hopes are high that he will bring new momentum to diplomatic efforts to resolve conflicts in hotspots around the world.

However many European allies remain reluctant to send more troops and equipment to the south of Afghanistan, where the insurgency is at its worst, and their reticence is straining the alliance.

The EU, for its part, is already providing Afghanistan with some eight billion euros over the 2001-2010 period and is helping train the Afghan police, and officials in Brussels want to know what more NATO and Washington want.

When asked about a possible unfreezing in NATO's ties with Russia, put on ice over Moscow's decision to send troops into Georgia last August, Clinton suggested there might be other means through which to engage Russia.

"I think the NATO-Russia Council is one vehicle but there may be other ways that we can design. But it is not the vehicle so much as the substance," she said.

According to alliance diplomats, she and her NATO counterparts are set to announce Thursday the resumption of formal high-level ties with Russia while reassuring Georgia and Ukraine they have a future in the military alliance.

"We want to have a more robust and meaningful dialogue with Russia going forward on a range of issues," Clinton said.

One of the thorny issues is US missile defence plans, and Clinton said she hoped Russia could be convinced of Washington's point of view.

"It is my hope that we will persuade Russia to (take) part in that defence," she said, adding that she thought Moscow might now feel less threatened by the US anti-missile shield plans.

"I think they are beginning to really believe it, that this is not about Russia."

The United States has been negotiating with Poland and the Czech Republic to install 10 missile interceptors, which would not carry explosive warheads, and a radar system on their territories to expand its shield into Europe.

The move, meant to counter any missile threat from Iran, angered Russia but Obama has since ordered a review of the project to see if it is still technically feasible and cost effective.

AFP, March 5, 2009

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Wednesday accused Iran's supreme leader of interfering in Palestinian affairs, after Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called for "resistance" against Israel.

Khamenei also called the Jewish state a "cancerous tumor" and accused U.S. President Barack Obama of following what he called the same mistaken path as George W. Bush in supporting Israel. He made the comments during a conference in Tehran earlier Wednesday.

Clinton and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas dismissed the ayatollah's remarks. Mr. Abbas said Iran should look after its own affairs and stop trying to widen the divide among Palestinians.

Clinton also told reporters in Brussels that she heard repeated complaints about Iran from Arab leaders during a donor conference in Egypt this week. She said Iran intends to "interfere with the internal affairs" in the region by funding terrorism, "whether it's Hezbollah, Hamas or other proxies."

Clinton did not rule out working with Iran, but said efforts to engage Tehran must be seen as "constructive."

Clinton and Mr. Abbas met in the West Bank earlier on Wednesday.

Earlier this week, Saudi Arabia's foreign minister called on his fellow Arab diplomats to deal with what he termed "the Iranian challenge."

At a meeting of Arab foreign ministers in Cairo Tuesday, Prince Saud al-Faisal said that resolving problems among Arabs depends on a joint position regarding Iran's stance on Gulf security and its nuclear program.

In Tehran, Iranian officials opened a two-day conference on what they call Israeli war crimes committed during Israel's January offensive against Hamas in Gaza, in which an estimated 1,300 people were killed.




Voice of America, March 4, 2009

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is in Brussels where she will attend a ministerial meeting of the North Atlantic Council, NATO's political and decision-making body Thursday. Afghanistan and relations with Russia are expected to figure prominently in the discussions.

Hillary Clinton arrived here from three days of talks in the Middle East. When she meets with her NATO member counterparts, the focus will shift somewhat - from quelling the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to dealing with Afghanistan and managing relations with Russia.

NATO spokesman James Appathurai says alliance ministers want to hear U.S. views on those issues.

"One is Afghanistan - the future of the U.S. engagement and how that influences and is influenced by NATO's engagement," he said. "And second is Russia - where the United States has a very important bilateral relationship with Russia that goes beyond the prism of NATO, but is influenced by and influences the NATO relationship with Russia as well."

NATO ministers are expected to endorse the resumption of formal, high-level contacts within the framework of the NATO-Russia Council.

NATO spokesman Appathurai says that could take place soon, although no specific date has been set.

"The sense around the NATO table anyway, and this would depend very much on the Russian Federation, is that they would wish to hold - if they decide to move forward in this way - a ministerial level meeting sooner rather than later," he said.

Such contacts were suspended last August amid NATO's condemnation of Russia's use of overwhelming military force in its war with Georgia and its recognition of the breakaway Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent entities.

This is Hillary Clinton's first visit to Brussels since she became secretary of state. A senior U.S. official said the United States wants to re-energize the Atlantic alliance and build common strategies with its European allies. The NATO meeting is seen as a good opportunity to do that.




By Sonja Pace, Voice of America, March 4, 2009

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) - Seven months after breaking ties with Russia over its invasion of Georgia, the NATO alliance is moving toward resuming formal relations.

NATO foreign ministers meeting Thursday appeared likely to decide the time is right. Such a move could boost President Barack Obama's efforts to build a stronger bond with the Russians after years of tensions during the Bush administration.

For U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who arrived in the Belgian capital Wednesday night, the NATO meeting will be her first. She is at the midpoint of a weeklong trip that began in Egypt and took her to Israel on Tuesday and the West Bank on Wednesday. After the NATO session she is due to travel to Geneva on Friday to meet with her Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov.

On Wednesday, a NATO spokesman said the alliance's secretary-general hopes that Clinton and her fellow foreign ministers will endorse a quick resumption of official contacts with Russia. Spokesman James Appathurai said Russia will be one of two main subjects under discussion; the other is the prospect of developing a more effective strategy for carrying out the stalled war in Afghanistan.

Belgian Foreign Minister Karel de Gucht told reporters after hosting a dinner with his fellow NATO ministers Wednesday night that despite some small differences, there appeared to be a majority in favor of restarting formal ties with Russia.

Appathurai said the allies expect Clinton to update them on the Obama administration's review of its Afghan war strategy. The United States has more than 30,000 troops in Afghanistan and the alliance has a similar number. Washington has pushed the Europeans for many months to increase their commitments in Afghanistan - military and civilian - but a troop shortage persists, according to U.S. commanders.

Clinton declined Wednesday to discuss the status of the administration's Afghanistan review, which is examining ways to improve not only the military aspect of the struggle but also the international economic and diplomatic aspects. Asked whether Iran might be brought in as a partner in helping to stabilize Afghanistan, Clinton told reporters, "That will be considered."

Appathurai, the NATO spokesman, said Thursday will be "an important opportunity for an exchange of views as we move closer to the NATO summit," referring to an April meeting of NATO heads of government and state at which Afghanistan will be a key topic. "We will wish for all allies to sing from the same song-sheet, and this will be an important stage in that process."

A senior U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly, said Wednesday evening that Thursday's meeting of allied foreign ministers was expected to decide to authorize a revival of the NATO-Russia Council, a forum in which the allies regularly meet with their Russian counterparts to discuss a wide range of issues.

Clinton told reporters traveling with her Wednesday that the U.S. and NATO relationships with Russia are complicated.

"Just as with the conversation I will begin with Minister Lavrov on Friday, there's an interest in exploring with Russia what kind of cooperation is possible - both with NATO and with the United States on a range of issues," she said.

"In some areas, I think we're going to find there is a great potential for cooperation. In others, we're going to have differences and we will stand our ground and they will stand theirs and we'll hope to find some accommodation, if possible. But there are some actions Russia has taken recently, as you know, over the last several years that are very troubling," she added, referring at least in part to the Georgia war.

The five-day war erupted when Georgia launched an attack to regain control over South Ossetia, which has run its own affairs with Russian support since the early 1990s. Russian forces intervened, driving Georgian troops out of South Ossetia and surrounding areas and pushing deep into Georgia.

U.S. missile defenses are another source of tension with Moscow. The Russians are particularly angry about a Bush administration plan - now under review by the Obama administration - to install missile interceptors in Poland and a missile-tracking radar in the Czech Republic.

Clinton said Wednesday, without saying whether Obama would proceed with the plan, that the Russians should understand that the missile shield is not aimed at them.

"I think they are beginning to really believe it - that this is not about Russia," she said.

By ROBERT BURNS, The Associated Press, March 5, 2009

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton promised personal involvement in stalled Mideast peace efforts Wednesday and expressed concern about the supply of humanitarian aid to a recovering Gaza.

On her first Mideast visit as secretary of state, Clinton also displayed strong support for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Standing next to him, she told a news conference the Palestinian Authority is the "only legitimate government of the Palestinian people."

Abbas has steadily lost support at home, particularly after a year of inconclusive peace talks with Israel. His Islamic militant Hamas rivals, who seized Gaza from him in 2007, are widely seen as emerging stronger from Israel's recent military offensive against them.

In Gaza, Hamas spokesman Taher Nunu said Clinton's statement "was a slap in the face of those who were expecting changes in America foreign policy. She did not bring anything new. Instead, her statements show bias to the Zionist enemy."

In violence Wednesday, two Islamic Jihad militants were killed in an Israeli airstrike after sundown in northern Gaza, Palestinian security and health officials said. The Israeli military said the target was a senior Islamic Jihad militant who was involved in firing rockets at the Israeli city of Ashkelon.

Two more Islamic Jihad militants were killed and a third was wounded in a separate Israeli airstrike Thursday morning in the Mughazai refugee camp in central Gaza, the group said. The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the reported attack.

Gaza has been under a blockade since the Hamas takeover, but both Abbas and international aid officials say its borders need to reopen to make reconstruction possible after Israel's offensive ended in January.

"We want humanitarian aid to get into Gaza in sufficient amounts to alleviate the suffering of the people in Gaza," Clinton said, but she stopped short of calling for a full opening of the border crossings.

Israel allows in several dozen truckloads of aid every day, but bars the entry of concrete, pipes and other materials that it fears Hamas could seize.

Talking to reporters after meeting Clinton, Abbas criticized Iran, one of the main Hamas supporters, for trying to deepen the Palestinian divide. "Iran needs to take care of its own issues and stay away from intervening in Palestinian affairs," he said.

Clinton signaled that she'd be heavily involved in the region, and said her special envoy, George Mitchell, would return soon.

"The Obama administration will be vigorously engaged in efforts to forge a lasting peace between Israel, Palestinians and all of the Arab neighbors," she said.

On Tuesday, Clinton met with Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu, who opposes the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel.

But Clinton said Tuesday that working toward the creation of a Palestinian state as part of a peace agreement with Israel "seems inescapable."

Netanyahu also supports the expansion of Israeli settlements on war-won land claimed by the Palestinians, including the West Bank and east Jerusalem.

In recent days, Israel has issued orders for the demolition of dozens of Palestinian homes in east Jerusalem, saying the homes were built illegally.

Palestinians say they cannot receive proper building permits from Israeli authorities, and the planned demolitions are means to assert Israel's control.

Clinton said the demolitions are "unhelpful" to peace efforts.

Israel captured east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war and annexed the area. But the annexation is not internationally recognized, and the Palestinians seek east Jerusalem as capital of a future independent state.

By MOHAMMED DARAGHMEH, The Associated Press, March 5, 2009

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is proposing a high-level international conference on Afghanistan, possibly sponsored by the United Nations.

Clinton made the proposal at a NATO foreign ministers meeting Thursday. She said that the U.S. is discussing with the United Nations the possibility that U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon would open the conference and that the talks would be lead by the U.N. special representative for Afghanistan, Kai Eide of Norway.

She proposes inviting representatives from Afghanistan and Pakistan, NATO allies, and nations that have troops in Afghanistan.

She said the U.S. hopes that such a conference could establish an international consensus on a way forward in Afghanistan, where the war effort has deteriorated over the past two years.

By ROBERT BURNS, The Associated Press, March 5, 2009

SHARM EL-SHEIK, Egypt (AP) - At his first meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, the U.N. chief pressed for more money and stronger American leadership on climate change, the Middle East, chaos in Somalia and justice in Darfur.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he was encouraged by Clinton's response to his request for additional cash for peacekeepers and other badly stretched U.N. priorities.

They spoke on the sidelines of an international conference in Egypt on Monday that raised $5.2 billion in pledges for rebuilding Gaza, at the conclusion of the U.N. secretary-general's nine-day, six-nation African tour.

"She is quite supportive, and she told me that she will, her administration, the Obama administration is committed to working very closely politically and also (with) these financial contributions," Ban told The Associated Press in a wide-ranging interview this week.

The U.N. had a difficult relationship with the United States under former U.S. Ambassador John Bolton, who served for 16 months in 2005-2006. He aggressively pursued former President George W. Bush's agenda, including pressing for sanctions against Iran and North Korea and an overhaul of the United Nations, antagonizing many U.N. member states with his abrasive approach.

His successor, Zalmay Khalilzad, a gregarious and affable diplomat, improved relations.

Ban, who became secretary-general in January 2007, has promoted a good working relationship with the world body's single biggest backer. The United States provides 22 percent of the organizations $4.86 billion operating budget, but is perenially late in paying its dues.

"I told her that we highly value a stronger partnership between the U.S. and the U.N.," he said. "Policy-wise, we will fully cooperate, but at the same time we expect (more) U.S. support for the United Nations politically and financially."

Ban told Clinton, a co-member of the so-called Quartet of Mideast peacemakers that also includes Russia and the European Union, that "we are looking forward to full engagement and leadership" from the U.S. toward a two-nation peaceful solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The former New York senator visited Ban's native South Korea twice as first lady; he served as the nation's foreign minister. Now, they are determined to work toward his current No. 1 priority - brokering a new international climate treaty by the end of the year.

Clinton assured Ban he could count on U.S. leadership to reduce carbon dioxide, methane and other industrial gases that trap heat in the atmosphere like a greenhouse.

On her first stint of Middle East diplomacy, Clinton called for a comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace and signaled a possible warming in U.S. relations with Syria.

She said President Barack Obama would continue the Bush administration's focus on seeking a two-state solution that involves Israel and a sovereign Palestinian state. She made it clear, however, that Obama would take a more active approach than Bush.

By JOHN HEILPRIN, The Associated Press, March 4, 2009

JERUSALEM (AP) - The United States will dispatch two emissaries to Syria for "preliminary conversations" aimed at warming relations with an Arab adversary accused of supporting terrorism, seeking weapons of mass destruction, facilitating the insurgency in neighboring Iraq and balking at talking peace with Israel, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Tuesday.

The Syria move is one element in a complex set of diplomatic maneuvers the Obama administration is juggling as it attempts to steer a new course toward a broad Middle East peace that includes long-term stability in Iraq and a squelching of Iran's nuclear ambitions.

The outlook is clouded by Israel's struggle to create a unity government after inconclusive national elections last month, internal divisions in the Palestinian Authority that is Israel's peacemaking partner and the militant rule of Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The man President Barack Obama chose to attempt to navigate those hazards, George Mitchell, accompanied Clinton in her talks Tuesday with Israeli leaders.

Clinton said that while success for the Syrian outreach was not assured, it reflected Obama's determination to take a new approach to foreign policy.

"There is no way to predict what the future of our relations concerning Syria might be," Clinton told reporters. But she suggested that the administration had weighed the potential costs and benefits to stepping up its engagement.

"We don't engage in discussions for the sake of having a conversation," she said. "There has to be a purpose to them. There has to be some perceived benefit accruing to the United States and our allies and our shared values. But I think it is a worthwhile effort to go and begin these preliminary conversations."

U.S.-Syrian relations have been tense, particularly since the U.S. ambassador, Margaret Scobey, was yanked from Damascus by the Bush administration in 2005 to protest Syria's suspected role in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Damascus denied involvement but in the uproar that followed was forced to withdraw its troops from Lebanon, ending a 29-year military presence.

Clinton was not specific about what the U.S. emissaries - Mideast experts Daniel Shapiro of the National Security Council and Jeffrey Feltman of the State Department - would seek to achieve in Damascus, beyond what she called exploring issues of concern to the United States. Last month Feltman met with Syria's ambassador to Washington, Imad Moustapha, to raise U.S. concerns, including human rights, nuclear weapons and terrorism, and several members of Congress have visited Damascus in recent weeks.

Feltman and Shapiro are due in Damascus later this week.

The last time a U.S. diplomat of Feltman's rank visited Damascus was September 2004 when William J. Burns went with a senior Pentagon official in a largely unsuccessful effort to persuade the Syrians to stop the flow of foreign fighters across its border into Iraq.

On her first visit to the Middle East as secretary of state, Clinton met Tuesday with top Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu. She declared that the creation of a Palestinian state as part of a peace agreement with Israel "seems inescapable." Her comment was notable because it appeared at odds with Netanyahu's view on the way ahead with the Palestinians. At the same time, Clinton promised to work with the new Israeli government.

For the second straight day she suggested Israel might be justified in renewing a military offensive in Gaza in response to further rocket attacks by Hamas - a message sure to be welcomed by a caretaker Israeli government that is under international pressure to expand the opening of border crossings in Gaza to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian relief and commerce.

Clinton spoke of a "double reality" - the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza as a result of the recent Israeli air and ground assault, and unacceptable rocket attacks by Hamas on southern Israel, which Israel cites as a reason not to expand the border crossings.

The aim, Clinton said, is a durable cease-fire.

"That can only be achieved if Hamas ceases the rocket attacks," she said. "No nation should be expected to sit idly by and allow rockets assault its people and its territory. These attacks must stop and so must the smuggling of weapons into Gaza." She made the same point on Monday at a news conference in Egypt, where she announced $300 million in U.S. humanitarian aid for Gaza.

Clinton's visit came at an awkward time, with uncertainty about the outcome of Netanyahu's attempt to create a ruling coalition.

Netanyahu opposes a two-state solution to the Palestinian problem. He talks of giving the Palestinians autonomy but opposes key aspects of statehood, such as control over borders and airspace or having an army. His plan has been to pursue an "economic peace," developing the Palestinian economy so that one day conditions will be ripe for some sort of permanent settlement with Israel.

Netanyahu's criticism in the past of peace talks with the Palestinians and the possibility of Palestinian independence has raised concerns that his new government could clash with the United States.

Clinton began her day by meeting with President Shimon Peres, who greeted her with a peck on the cheek and a bouquet of flowers "for the most flowery lady."

By ROBERT BURNS, The Associated Press, March 4, 2009

NATO's secretary-general hopes that the alliance's foreign ministers will endorse a quick resumption of official contacts with Russia, which have been suspended since the war in Georgia last August, a spokesman said Wednesday.

Alliance spokesman James Appathurai said the issue of re-engaging with Russia will be one of the two main topics at tomorrow's meeting of NATO foreign ministers. It will be the first such conference to be attended by new U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Formal ties between NATO and Russia were suspended following the brief Russo-Georgian war.

NATO accused Moscow of using disproportionate force to eject Georgian forces that had shelled and occupied the capital of the breakaway province of South Ossetia. Moscow maintained its military actions were defensive and in response to Georgian aggression.

Despite the angry rhetoric, NATO and Moscow have cooperated closely in other fields - including the opening up of a new supply route for western forces in Afghanistan via Russian territory and in anti-piracy missions off the coast of Somalia.

Appathurai said a resumption of official contacts at ambassadorial level could take place almost immediately, but that arranging a meeting of alliance ministers with their Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov would take longer.

Thursday's ministerial meeting will also focus on Afghanistan, where U.S. and alliance troops have been fighting an uphill battle against resurgent Taliban militants.

"Secretary Clinton ... will update the allies on the U.S. review, where it is and where it is going," Appathurai said, referring to the review of U.S. strategy in Afghanistan that is currently under way in Washington.

"This will be an important opportunity for an exchange of views as we move closer to the NATO summit (in April)," he said. "We will wish for all allies to sing from the same song-sheet, and this will be an important stage in that process."

The Associated Press, March 4, 2009

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) - Palestinian leaders were urging U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Wednesday to push Israel to freeze construction in West Bank settlements and open blockaded Gaza Strip borders.

Clinton arrived in the West Bank under heavy security Wednesday and met separately with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.

She repeated that the U.S. was committed to the establishment of a Palestinian state and she praised Fayyad's plan for rebuilding Gaza. Fayyad's government outlined the plan Monday at an international donors' conference for the territory, which was heavily damaged in the recent Israeli military offensive. Donors raised $5.2 billion for Gaza and

Fayyad's government, with the U.S. pledging $900 million.

Palestinian leaders are watching closely for signs of change in U.S. policy toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Even Palestinian moderates were disappointed with the previous U.S. administration's failure to take Israel to task for accelerated settlement construction in 2008, when the two sides were holding U.S.-backed peace talks.

The Palestinians want to establish a state in the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza, areas Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war. Settlement expansion in the Palestinian-claimed areas undercuts Abbas' standing at home and makes it increasingly difficult to establish an independent Palestinian state.

Ordinary Palestinians in Ramallah seemed largely indifferent to the Clinton visit. Many Palestinians believe the U.S. has a strong pro-Israel bias and can't be a fair broker in the Mideast conflict.

"America is always for Israel," said Ayman al-Umari, 32, manager of a shop selling household appliances. "If Clinton wants to come, we'll welcome her. If (President) Obama wants to come, we'll welcome him, but it doesn't help."

Clinton met briefly with young Palestinians studying English, and announced a U.S. initiative to help poorer Palestinian students attend four-year Palestinian universities and give grants to other Palestinians to attend U.S. schools.

"For a Palestinian state to be prosperous, accountable to its people and be able to live up to its obligations in the international community, it has to have more people who can do the job in the 21st century," she said.

In Jerusalem on Tuesday, Clinton said the creation of a Palestinian state as part of a peace agreement with Israel "seems inescapable."

But Abbas has little to show for a year of peace talks with Israel's outgoing government, and Israel's prime minister-designate, hardline leader Benjamin Netanyahu, does not support the establishment of a Palestinian state. Clinton met with Netanyahu, as well as Tzipi Livni and Ehud Barak, the outgoing foreign and defense ministers, on Tuesday.

Abbas aide Saeb Erekat said the Palestinian leader is seeking a tougher U.S. stance toward Israel. "The main point is that the Israeli government needs to accept the two-state solution and ... stop settlement expansion," Erekat said.

He said Abbas had planned to raise in his meeting with Clinton Israeli construction plans in east Jerusalem, which the Palestinians want as their future capital. Settlement construction is considered illegal under international law.

The future of Hamas-ruled Gaza is also on the agenda. Abbas lost control of Gaza in June 2007, when his rival, the Islamic militant Hamas, seized control by force. Israel and Egypt closed Gaza's borders in response, a policy tacitly supported by the international community, which shuns Hamas as a terrorist group.

However, the blockade has come under renewed scrutiny following Israel's three-week military offensive against Hamas, which ended in an informal cease-fire Jan. 18. Some 15,000 homes were destroyed or damaged in the war, meant to halt Palestinian rocket fire on southern Israel, and international aid officials say Gaza's borders need to reopen to make reconstruction possible.

"We want the U.S. to help us open the passages to get material for reconstruction into Gaza," Erekat said.

In her meeting with Barak on Tuesday, Clinton urged easing the flow of goods into Gaza to alleviate the hardships of ordinary Gazans, Israeli officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the talks were private.

Currently, Israel allows several dozen truckloads of aid to get into Gaza every day, but bars the entry of concrete, pipes and other materials that would be crucial for reconstruction. Israel argues that such shipments could be seized by Hamas and used for building bunkers or rockets.

The Gaza offensive did not end the rocket fire, and on Wednesday, Israeli aircraft struck three tunnels on the Gaza-Egypt border that militants are suspected of using to smuggle in weapons.

In Jerusalem on Tuesday, Clinton demanded that Hamas cease its rocket attacks, saying Israel should not "be expected to sit idly by and allow rockets (to) assault its people and its territory."

Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said Wednesday that Clinton's remarks throughout her Mideast trip have been "totally biased in favor of the Zionist occupation and do not reflect any change in American foreign policy."

By MOHAMMED DARAGHMEH, The Associated Press, March 4, 2009

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sought to reassure Europeans that U.S. overtures to Russia won't weaken trans-Atlantic links, as she spoke in Brussels before heading to a meeting with her Russian counterpart.

"Our engagement with Russia in no way undermines our support for countries like Georgia or the Baltics or the Balkans or anywhere else in Europe," Clinton told aspiring leaders in a town hall-style forum at the European Parliament today that was also Web cast to 31 countries. Those nations have a right "to be independent, free, make their own decisions and chart their own course without undue interference from Russia."

The exchange was part of Clinton's drive to connect U.S. diplomacy with the next generation and improve America's image abroad during her first round of foreign visits. She'll meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov later today in Geneva, where she plans to pursue the Obama administration's determination to solidify partnerships on key issues, even with occasional adversaries.

On this week's swing through the Middle East and Europe, Clinton, 61, has met with young people or women's groups at almost every stop.

By Viola Gienger, Bloomberg, March 6, 2009

JERUSALEM - Expressing doubts about one of the Obama administration's most important diplomatic initiatives, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told an Arab foreign minister on Monday that she did not expect Iran to respond positively to an American offer of direct negotiations.

The comments, made by Mrs. Clinton in a meeting with the foreign minister of the United Arab Emirates, Abdallah bin Zayid al-Nuhayyan, stole some of the attention at a conference in Egypt devoted to the reconstruction of Gaza.

"It's doubtful that Iran would respond," she said, according to a senior State Department official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was describing a private meeting.

This was not the first time Mrs. Clinton had privately expressed skepticism about Tehran's receptivity to the United States overture. But her reference to it in talks with an Arab state is noteworthy because it offered a foreign audience a glimpse into the calculations of the Obama administration.

American officials privately say an overture to Iran could pay off, no matter how it reacts. A positive response would be a breakthrough, while a rebuff could put Tehran on the defensive, potentially undermining the posturing of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at home and encouraging America's allies to intensify sanctions against the government.

Pressed for details on her comments about Iran, Mrs. Clinton declined to elaborate but said she told several Arab officials that the United States would "consult constantly" with them on its policy toward Tehran.

Mrs. Clinton also sought to open a fresh American chapter in the Middle East, declaring to Arab and European leaders that the United States was "committed to a comprehensive peace between Israel and its Arab neighbors" and would "pursue it on many fronts."

The United States pledged more than $900 million in aid to the Palestinians, $300 million of which is relief for Gaza. The donors' conference, in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el Sheik, raised nearly $4.5 billion, according to the Egyptian government, which acted as host.

Mrs. Clinton did not signal any shifts in American policy, but the broad scope of her remarks suggested that the Obama administration was open to new approaches toward the intractable problems of the region.

"We are reaching out to determine what, if any, areas of cooperation and engagement are productive, and that includes Syria," she said at a news conference at the end of the meeting. In expressing her commitment to peace, Mrs. Clinton invoked her background as an advocate for children and the efforts of her husband, former President Bill Clinton, to broker a peace deal. "This is something that is in my heart, not just my portfolio," she said to applause from a room of Arab journalists.

But Mrs. Clinton can go only so far. On delicate issues - like whether to deal with a Palestinian government that includes the militant group Hamas - the United States is yet not ready to shift course.

Mrs. Clinton reaffirmed that the United States would deal only with a Palestinian unity government that renounced terrorism and recognized the right of Israel to exist. That would clearly exclude Hamas, which, she noted, continues to launch rockets at Israeli towns.

The American aid money, she said, would go only to the Palestinian Authority and would have strings attached to guarantee that it "does not end up in the wrong hands" - another reference to Hamas.

Some European countries are more receptive to dealing with a unity government that would include Hamas. Europeans have also pressed Israel harder than has the United States to open border crossings to Gaza, something it has refused to do for fear of strengthening Hamas.

Hamas has demanded the opening of the crossings as part of negotiations for a truce with Israel. Israel is insisting on an end to rocket fire from Gaza, a halt to weapons smuggling and the release of a captive Israeli soldier.

After a day of meetings, European officials seemed convinced that the United States would increase its pressure on Israel during Mrs. Clinton's talks with Israeli leaders here on Tuesday.

"She will certainly make the case for that, that we are making," said Benita Ferrero-Waldner, the European commissioner for external relations. "We are not yet satisfied with the openings."

Mrs. Clinton said later that she would only raise specific issues with the next Israeli government. Benjamin Netanyahu, the Likud leader who is putting together that government, may end up with a narrow right-wing coalition that would be reluctant to loosen border controls.

The head of the United Nations Development Program in Gaza, Khaled Abdel Shafi, expressed worries about how much of the aid would actually reach people. "The problem is not only with the money," he said, "but with the siege, cease-fire and national reconciliation."

During her meetings with Palestinian leaders in the West Bank on Wednesday, Mrs. Clinton is likely to hear anger over Israel's continuing construction of settlements on occupied land there.

Nearly 300,000 Israelis live in such settlements, in addition to another 250,000 in East Jerusalem, also on land captured in the 1967 war. The Palestinians hope to build their state on that land and argue that settlement building drives that goal further and further away.

Peace Now, an Israeli advocacy group that opposes the settlements, issued a report on Monday alleging that tens of thousands of new housing units were in the planning stage.

The report, clearly issued to coincide with Mrs. Clinton's arrival, said some 6,000 new units had been approved and another 58,000 were awaiting approval. "If all the plans are realized," the report said, "the number of settlers in the territories will be doubled."




By Mark Landler, The New York Times, March 2, 2009

In a Mideast meeting, the secretary of State says a rejection by Iran could strengthen the U.S. position.

Reporting from Sharm El Sheik, Egypt -- The Obama administration has already concluded that a diplomatic overture to Iran, one of the central promises of the president's election campaign, is unlikely to persuade Tehran to give up its nuclear ambitions.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told the foreign minister of the United Arab Emirates in a private meeting Monday that it is "very doubtful" a U.S. approach will persuade Iran to relent, said a senior State Department official, who spoke on condition of anonymity under customary diplomatic rules.

Many foreign policy experts, including some in Democratic circles, have questioned whether talks alone would persuade Iran to give up its nuclear program.

Clinton's comments suggest that even as U.S. officials weigh a diplomatic overture, they have begun looking ahead to the next stage in dealing with Iran. The remarks also indicate that the administration believes it may need to press ahead with the diplomatic and economic pressures begun by the Bush administration.

The U.S. official said that Nuhayyan expressed concern over a U.S.-Iranian deal, which could leave Persian Gulf states with reduced Western support amid tensions with Tehran.

But he said Clinton assured the minister that the administration is "under no illusions" and would consult with allies in the region.

The new U.S. administration is considering several ways to try to engage Iran. Richard C. Holbrooke, the special envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan, has said that he would like to enlist Iranian help to stabilize its neighbor to the east, Afghanistan. And Clinton last month named veteran Mideast negotiator Dennis B. Ross as a special advisor, with Iran as part of his assignment.

U.S. officials elsewhere sought to rekindle progress on international disarmament. In Vienna on Monday, the Obama administration disclosed plans to reduce its nuclear arsenal as a way of persuading other nations, including Iran, to scale back their own ambitions.

U.S. envoy Gregory L. Schulte, speaking in a closed-door meeting of the International Atomic Energy Association's board of governors, noted the new administration's "readiness for direct engagement with Tehran."

Schulte also said the U.S. would resurrect nuclear disarmament efforts that fell by the wayside during the Bush administration, including "dramatic reductions" in U.S. and Russian stockpiles and a ban on production of "new nuclear weapons material," according to a copy of his prepared remarks.

"President Obama supports the goal of working toward a world without nuclear weapons," he said. "His administration intends to renew America's commitment to disarmament."

The statement came a day after U.S. Navy Admiral Michael G. Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Iran had enough low-enriched uranium for a weapon, a conclusion also drawn by International Atomic Energy Agency officials last month.

An Iranian official Monday denied the claims as "baseless."

Clinton's comments about Iran came on the sidelines of a gathering in this Sinai resort of more than 75 countries for a Gaza Strip donors conference. Clinton told the group, "We are committed to a comprehensive peace between Israel and its neighbors, and we will pursue it on many fronts."

Her reference to a "comprehensive peace" hinted at U.S. interest in a deal between Israel and Syria, as well as between Israel and the Palestinians.

The Egyptian sponsors of the event said it brought pledges of $4.5 billion for humanitarian relief and reconstruction. But officials from Europe, Arab states and international organizations also demanded that Israel ease restrictions on border crossings to speed the delivery of relief supplies and rebuilding materials after a 22-day Israeli offensive aimed at stopping cross-border rocket fire from Gaza.

"The situation at the border crossings is intolerable," said United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Officials at the conference also called for a settlement between the two rival Palestinian movements, Hamas and Fatah. Europeans warned they would not continue to fund reconstruction work unless Israelis and Palestinians tried to settle their differences.

"Will we once again reconstruct something that we built a few years ago and has now been hammered and flattened?" asked Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere. "Many donors, despite pledges, will wish to see political progress before they commit to infrastructure reconstruction."




By Paul Richter, Los Angeles Times, March 3, 2009

MOSCOW (AP) - Russia's foreign minister on Monday urged the United States to talk to Iran and staked out a tough position before talks expected this year on a new nuclear arms control treaty, Russian news agencies reported.

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is scheduled to hold talks with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in Geneva on Friday in the highest-level meeting between the two nations since President Barack Obama took office.

The United States has long sought more help from Russia in nudging its close partner Iran into compliance with international demands to halt nuclear activities. The U.S. and other Western nations say those activities are aimed at developing nuclear weapons.

But Lavrov suggested is the United States that should step up efforts - led by what Russia calls the 'sextet' of Britain, France, Russia, China, the U.S. and Germany - to resolve the standoff over Iran's nuclear program.

"We very much want the American side not just to join with the sextet on paper, but to join talks with Iran that the sextet is proposing," ITAR-Tass quoted Lavrov as saying on a flight from Egypt to Spain, where President Dmitry Medvedev wraps up a state visit Tuesday.

Lavrov also said Russia would like to see the United States and Iran restore diplomatic relations.

"This would be an important element in stabilizing the situation in the region," he was quoted as saying.

Russia and the U.S. have argued for years over Iran's nuclear program. Russia, a permanent U.N. Security Council member, has signed off on Western-initiated sanctions punishing Iran for nuclear activity, but only after watering them down with China's help.

Russia has eased U.S. concerns about the nearly finished nuclear power plant it is building in Iran by obliging Iran to return all spent fuel from the reactor. But the project itself is symbolic of the different views of Iran's nuclear program. Russian officials have repeatedly said there is no evidence Iran is seeking nuclear weapons, while persistent U.S. concerns were on display Sunday when Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Iran already has enough fissile material for one.

Iran is just one of the issues that will test the relationship between Russia and the U.S. under Obama, whose election has raised hopes of improvement after bitter under the administration of George W. Bush.

Arms control is expected to be a main topic of Lavrov's talks with Clinton as the nations prepare to seek a replacement for the 1991 START I nuclear arms treaty, which expires in December. Both indicate they are ready for further cuts.

But Lavrov pressed ahead Monday with the tough stance he laid out last month, saying Russia wants limits on all nuclear warheads, not just those deemed "operationally deployed," and wants to cut not just warheads but also the missiles, bombers and submarines that carry them.

By STEVE GUTTERMAN, The Associated Press, March 3, 2009

Some 24 hours after reaffirming in Egypt Washington's commitment to a two-state solution, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is scheduled to meet on Tuesday with Prime Minister-designate Binyamin Netanyahu, who has talked about the Palestinians governing themselves but has consistently stopped short of mentioning a full-blown Palestinian state.

Israeli government officials said that both Clinton and Netanyahu would likely be in "listening mode," wanting to hear the positions of the other side.

"Remember, this is their first meeting," one official said, adding that he did not expect any "fireworks" around either the two-state issue or construction in the settlements.

Zalman Shoval, one of Netanyahu's top foreign policy advisers, said he expected that Clinton - like US special envoy George Mitchell, who met with Netanyahu on Thursday - would wait to discuss specifics until a new government was set up. He said Clinton would probably speak along lines similar to Mitchell's, and not to bring up "unexpected subjects."

Mitchell, who will be accompanying Clinton, did not discuss the settlements with Netanyahu during their meeting.

The Clinton-Netanyahu meeting is scheduled to last an hour and is the most important of the new US secretary of state's meetings with Israeli leaders on Wednesday. She will meet with President Shimon Peres, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Defense Minister Ehud Barak.

While those meetings would likely focus on past events, one Israeli diplomatic official said, the meeting with Netanyahu would deal with what will happen in the future.

Netanyahu is expected to tell Clinton that he favors an approach whereby, rather than declaring up front that there has to be a Palestinian state and then seeing how it would come about, he would build up the elements that have to be in any self-governing entity and then see what would come out of that.

Clinton, however, made it abundantly clear in the speech she gave at the Gaza reconstruction conference in Sharm e-Sheikh that Washington still believed in the two-state formula, and that Middle East leaders could count on President Barack Obama to take a more active approach than did his predecessor, George W. Bush.

"It is time to look ahead," she said, with an eye to the human aspects of what years of regional conflict have meant for the Palestinians and others.

"The United States is committed to a comprehensive peace between Israel and its Arab neighbors, and we will pursue it on many fronts," she said.

"We cannot afford more setbacks or delays - or regrets about what might have been, had different decisions been made," she added, in an apparent reference to the failure of previous peace initiatives, including those pushed vigorously by her husband Bill Clinton's administration.

Associates of Netanyahu and Israel Beiteinu chairman Avigdor Lieberman said they had no problem with Clinton mentioning several times in her speech that she was in favor of the creation of a Palestinian state.

One Likud MK who opposes such a state responded bluntly, "So what? She also said she would be president about a thousand times, and did that happen?"

Israeli officials said that despite media speculation on inevitable friction between an Obama and a Netanyahu administration, "everybody here is a grownup; we know their positions, and they know ours. We are friends and allies, and it is not realistic to think we are going to get into a boxing match over these issues."

If Netanyahu's previous meeting with Mitchell is any indication of what to expect in the Clinton parley, the tone of the meeting is likely to be one of "let's be pragmatic and figure out how we can move things forward," according to the official.

The impression Mitchell left on his Israeli interlocutors was that the US was still very much in the policy-review stage, talking and listening to everyone in the region and looking in a "very sober" and realistic manner at the situation.

Since Clinton will be coming from the Gaza reconstruction conference in Sharm e-Sheikh, where the US pledged some $900 million to the Palestinians, her talks in Jerusalem are expected to focus on how to provide the aid without building up Hamas in the process.

Likewise, Iran is also likely to be a focus of the talks, with the Israeli officials expected to express Israel's position that the US should set a time frame for its talks with Iran so Teheran does not drag the negotiations on indefinitely while continuing to develop its nuclear program.

Clinton, who arrived in the capital on Monday evening, will also visit Yad Vashem and meet with a women's NGO called Sviva Tomechet, which provides support and funds for female entrepreneurs. Among those she will meet are an Ethiopian and a Russian immigrant who received help from the organization and set up businesses on their own.

Diplomatic officials said this type of meeting represented a vastly different style than that of her predecessor, Condoleezza Rice, who generally used to come to Israel, hold diplomatic meetings and leave, without these types of "media events."

Clinton will hold a similar kind of meeting with Palestinian students learning English in a US-funded program in Ramallah, when she goes there on Wednesday. She will meet with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salaam Fayad. She is scheduled to leave the region on Wednesday afternoon.

By Herb Keinon, The Jerusalem Post, March 3, 2009

JERUSALEM (AP) - Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton says the U.S. will work closely with any new Israeli government.

Clinton is in Jerusalem on her first Mideast visit as the top U.S. diplomat. She spoke after meeting with Israeli President Shimon Peres on Tuesday.

Clinton says the U.S. will work with any government that "represents the democratic will of the people of Israel."

Hard-line Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu is forming a coalition government and is expected to be sworn in as the country's next prime minister within weeks.

Clinton is set to meet Netanyahu later in the day.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

JERUSALEM (AP) - Israel's prime minister-designate, Benjamin Netanyahu, planned to tell visiting U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Tuesday that his government will continue peace talks with the Palestinians, a lawmaker from Netanyahu's party said.

Clinton was kicking off two days of meetings with Israeli and Palestinian leaders on her first trip to the region as the top U.S. diplomat.

"I think that Hillary Clinton, when she comes today, will find Benjamin Netanyahu prepared to continue to hold negotiations, not only on economic projects but also political negotiations, a political process," said Likud lawmaker Silvan Shalom, a former foreign minister. Netanyahu and Clinton were to meet later in the day.

That message would mark a change in the hard-line Likud leader's long-stated position that peace talks are a waste of time because of the weakness of the Palestinian leadership. He has suggested in the past he would instead invest in the Palestinian economy while continuing Israel's military occupation of the West Bank indefinitely.

But Netanyahu appears to have altered his stance, at least outwardly, since Israel's national election last month, after which he was chosen to lead the country's next government. Freezing peace talks would set Israel up for a clash with the international community and the U.S., its most important ally.

But Shalom, who spoke to Army Radio, would not say that Netanyahu supports the creation of a Palestinian state, the key goal of U.S.-backed peace negotiations. Netanyahu also openly opposes any division of Jerusalem, a central Palestinian demand.

Clinton arrived in Jerusalem Monday evening from the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik, where she pledged $900 million in U.S. aid at an international donors conference for rebuilding the Gaza Strip after Israel's offensive against its Hamas rulers.

On Tuesday she is scheduled to meet Israeli leaders in Jerusalem, including Netanyahu, President Shimon Peres, and members of Israel's outgoing government - Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Defense Minister Ehud Barak. On Wednesday, she is to call on Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank.

Speaking at the Sharm el-Sheikh conference, Clinton said the Obama administration was committed to pushing intensively to find a way for Israelis and Palestinians to exist peacefully in separate states, and called for urgent action to forge a comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace.

Netanyahu has several weeks to form a new governing coalition. His attempts to bring Livni, his centrist rival, into a broad coalition government have failed so far, largely because of Netanyahu's refusal to embrace Livni's call for the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel.

At present, it appears his most likely government is a narrow alliance of hard-line and Orthodox parties opposed to significant concessions for peace.

The Associated Press, March 3, 2009

JERUSALEM (AP) - Israel's prime minister-designate, Benjamin Netanyahu, planned to tell visiting U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Tuesday that his government will continue peace talks with the Palestinians, a lawmaker from Netanyahu's party said.

Clinton was kicking off two days of meetings with Israeli and Palestinian leaders on her first trip to the region as the top U.S. diplomat.

"I think that Hillary Clinton, when she comes today, will find Benjamin Netanyahu prepared to continue to hold negotiations, not only on economic projects but also political negotiations, a political process," said Likud lawmaker Silvan Shalom, a former foreign minister. Netanyahu and Clinton were to meet later in the day.

That message would mark a change in the hard-line Likud leader's long-stated position that peace talks are a waste of time because of the weakness of the Palestinian leadership. He has suggested in the past he would instead invest in the Palestinian economy while continuing Israel's military occupation of the West Bank indefinitely.

But Netanyahu appears to have altered his stance, at least outwardly, since Israel's national election last month, after which he was chosen to lead the country's next government. Freezing peace talks would set Israel up for a clash with the international community and the U.S., its most important ally.

But Shalom, who spoke to Army Radio, would not say that Netanyahu supports the creation of a Palestinian state, the key goal of U.S.-backed peace negotiations. Netanyahu also openly opposes any division of Jerusalem, a central Palestinian demand.

Clinton arrived in Jerusalem Monday evening from the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik, where she pledged $900 million in U.S. aid at an international donors conference for rebuilding the Gaza Strip after Israel's offensive against its Hamas rulers.

On Tuesday she is scheduled to meet Israeli leaders in Jerusalem, including Netanyahu, President Shimon Peres, and members of Israel's outgoing government - Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Defense Minister Ehud Barak. On Wednesday, she is to call on Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank.

Speaking at the Sharm el-Sheikh conference, Clinton said the Obama administration was committed to pushing intensively to find a way for Israelis and Palestinians to exist peacefully in separate states, and called for urgent action to forge a comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace.

Netanyahu has several weeks to form a new governing coalition. His attempts to bring Livni, his centrist rival, into a broad coalition government have failed so far, largely because of Netanyahu's refusal to embrace Livni's call for the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel.

At present, it appears his most likely government is a narrow alliance of hard-line and Orthodox parties opposed to significant concessions for peace.

By MATTI FRIEDMAN, Associated Press, March 3, 2009

SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (AFP) - US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem exchanged a few words during a rare brief encounter on Monday, Muallem told reporters.

The meeting on the sidelines of an international donor conference in Egypt "was short but very pleasant," Muallem said, adding that he was "happy it happened."

Reporters said they saw the pair shake hands as they headed for lunch during the conference in the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh.

Muallem was standing at the entrance to the banquet room where delegates from more than 70 countries and organisations were having lunch.

Clinton stopped in front of Muallem, shook his hand and exchanged a few words with him, the reporters said.

"With respect to talking with the Syrian foreign minister, again I will reiterate that in consultation with our friends and allies, our partners, we are reaching out to determine what, if any, areas of cooperation and engagement are possible," Clinton later told a news conference of the brief meeting.

US-Syrian ties were especially tense under president George W. Bush's administration, which accused Damascus of supporting terrorism and of turning a blind eye to the flow of arms and supplies to insurgents in neighbouring Iraq.

Relations deteriorated sharply after the February 2005 assassination of Lebanese ex-premier Rafiq Hariri in a Beirut bombing widely blamed on Syria. Damascus has repeatedly denied any involvement.

But US President Barack Obama has promised to pursue "principled and sustained" engagement with all Middle Eastern states, including Syria.

And earlier this month several leading US Congressmen including Senator John Kerry visited Damascus for talks with President Bashar al-Assad.

AFP, March 3, 2009

SHARM EL-SHEIK, Egypt (AP) - Hillary Rodham Clinton is in Egypt on her first trip to the Middle East as U.S secretary of state.

She arrived in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik on Sunday after an overnight flight from Washington. She planned to meet with her Mideast peace envoy, George Mitchell, who is touring the region.

On Monday, Clinton is attending an international donors conference for rebuilding the Gaza Strip. Clinton is expected to announce a U.S. donation of up to $900 million.

Clinton also will visit Israel and meet with Palestinian leaders in the West Bank.

The Associated Press, March 2, 2009

The Afghan government says U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has called Afghan President Hamid Karzai to discuss his demand to hold presidential elections earlier than planned.

Afghan officials on Sunday did not provide details of the talks, but said that the two spoke hours after Mr. Karzai issued his decree Saturday to hold the vote in April instead of August.

The U.S. State Department Saturday said August would be a better time to hold elections.

Afghanistan's Independent Election Commission has already set August 20 as the date for the polls in order to give 17,000 incoming U.S. troops time to improve security in the country.

The top U.S. military officer, Admiral Mike Mullen, told CNN television Sunday that holding elections earlier will generate a higher level of risk.

The Afghan leader wants presidential elections to be held according to the country's constitution - 30 to 60 days before his five-year term expires on May 21.

Opposition leaders have said Mr. Karzai's position would be illegitimate if he remained in office beyond May 21.

U.S. support for the embattled president came into question recently after the Obama administration openly accused Mr. Karzai of failing to crack down on government corruption.




Voice of America, March 1, 2009

SHARM EL-SHEIK, Egypt (AP) - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is calling for urgent action by Arabs, Israelis and the international community to break the cycle of Mideast violence and to move toward a comprehensive peace in the troubled region.

Clinton delivered remarks at a conference raising money for humanitarian assistance to the Gaza Strip and boosting the Palestinian economy.

Clinton said the United States was pledging $900 million. She gave no breakdown of the funds, but her spokesman, Robert A. Wood, said on Sunday that it included $300 million in humanitarian aid for Gaza and about $600 million in budget and development aid to the Palestinian Authority, which is based in the West Bank.

Clinton said the Obama administration is committed to engaging vigorously and intensively in the Mideast to push for a durable peace.

By ROBERT BURNS, The Associated Press, March 2, 2009

Nations Pledge $5.2B To Rebuild Gaza, While Pushing Palestinians To Resolve Differences and Re-Engage Peace Process

International donors pledged $5.2 billion to rebuild the devastated Gaza Strip and boost the Palestinian president at a conference Monday, while pushing the Palestinians to end their divisions and revive the peace process with Israel.

The conference at the Egyptian resort city of Sharm El-Sheik gathered the presidents of Egypt and France, the U.N. chief and top diplomats from 45 nations - including Hillary Rodham Clinton in her first Mideast trip as U.S. secretary of state - in a high-profile attempt to show international support for reconstruction after Israel's crippling offensive against Hamas.

But the broader message was that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his rivals, the militant Hamas, must resolve their dispute and form a government that can move ahead with rebuilding in Gaza and return to the negotiating table with Israel.

Clinton issued a blunt call at the conference for urgent action to forge a comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace, saying, "The top priority now is to reach a truce in Gaza between the Israeli and Palestinian sides.

"We cannot afford more setbacks or delays - or regrets about what might have been, had different decisions been made," she said in apparent reference to the failure of previous peace initiatives, including those pushed vigorously by her husband's administration.

CBS News correspondent Charles Wolfson, reporting from the summit, said Clinton also told attendees the U.S. would "work with our Palestinian partners, President Abbas and Prime Minister (Salam) Fayyed, to address critical humanitarian, budgetary and security and infrastructure needs.

"We will work with the Palestinian Authority to install safeguards to ensure that our money is only used where and for whom it is intended and does not end up in the wrong hands," she added in her prepared remarks.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband warned "there will be only limited physical reconstruction without political reconstruction" and stressed that Palestinians "need a single government across the Occupied Territories" - a direct appeal for rival Palestinian factions to hammer out a unity government.

The 80 nations and international organizations at Monday's gathering in this Red Sea resort pledged $5.2 billion, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit told reporters. Most of that amount - $4.48 billion - comes from new pledges, while the rest are old, unfulfilled pledges that donors recommitted to giving, he said.

Aboul Gheit says the figure is "beyond of our expectations."

Palestinian Planning Minister Samir Abdullah said the money is earmarked for humanitarian aid to Gaza, rebuilding in the territory and budget support to the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority. He could not immediately say how much was going to each fund.

The biggest donor is Saudi Arabia with $1 billion, followed by the United States, which promised $900 million, a third for humanitarian aid to Gaza and the rest to assist the Palestinian Authority of President Mahmoud Abbas.

CBS News' George Baghdadi, also reporting from Sharm El-Sheik, said that the biggest challenge facing the aid summit is not getting the money pledged, but figuring out how to channel it to those who need it, and not into the hands of the Hamas movement.

The international community refuses to negotiate with Gaza's militant Hamas rulers, considered a terrorist group by the United States and Israel. Hamas was not invited to the conference in this Red Sea resort. But Abbas' government, based in the West Bank, has little presence in Gaza after being driven out by Hamas in 2007.

In a significant move, Arab Gulf nations - including Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait - pledged $1.6 billion, but bypassed both Hamas and Abbas. The Gulf nations said in a statement they would set up a joint office in Gaza to carry out reconstruction on their own, deciding on projects and implementing them.

With the move, Gulf countries may be trying to signal to Hamas that Gulf nations are not favoring Abbas, hoping to encourage the militant group to moderate and reconcile with his Palestinian Authority.

Karen AbuZayd, the head of the U.N. aid agency for Palestinian refugees, told the AP that many donor nations had discussed possibly using the United Nations as an alternative route to avoid the sticky issue of who controls the funds.

"Certain donors have come forward to ask, and some of the regional parties as well have thought, that perhaps the U.N. could do more than what it's doing or what is its mandate," she said.

Baghdadi reports that, in his opening remarks, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said that only a "national Palestinian government" should handle aid money through a "transparent international mechanism" accepted by all.

Mubarak warned that the donors' pledges should not be treated as "spoils of war" - a message to rival Palestinian factions not to squabble over the funds.

He also said reconstruction will depend on reaching a long-term truce between Hamas and Israel, which Egypt is trying to mediate, and the opening up of Gaza's border crossings, which have been largely closed since Hamas took over the territory.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said "responsible Palestinians" should seek peace with Israel and said a prisoner exchange by Hamas to release Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit, held by Gaza militants since June 2006, "is a priority." Israel has demanded Schalit's release as part of any truce deal.

"You must admit that there is no other road to the creation of a Palestinian state but to engage resolutely in searching for a political solution and engage in a dialogue with Israel," Sarkozy said in a clear message to the militant group.

Abbas asked participants to adopt his prime minister Salam Fayyad's reconstruction plan, describing it as a "national comprehensive development plan" and promised the reconstruction would be based on "transparency and justice."

Fayyad has prepared a 53-page plan for the donors, including detailed damage assessments. For example, fixing war damage to infrastructure and homes would cost $501 million, according to the plan, which says 4,036 homes were destroyed and 11,514 damaged.

Hamas spokesmen Fawzi Barhoum sought to dispel fears his group was trying to grab funds but also said they shouldn't be channeled through Abbas. He urged the conference to work out "meaningful mechanisms" to get money directly to Gazans "without going into the internal Palestinian political differences."




CBS News / The Associated Press, March 2, 2009

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton shook hands with her Syrian counterpart Monday as the two attended a conference in Egypt on rebuilding the Gaza Strip.

The simple handshake before lunch was the highest-level contact between the two countries in years.

It was clear that the gesture had been arrangement, as Foreign Minister Walid Muallem (seen at left in a file photo) chose the first table in the banquet hall in the resort town of Sharm el-Sheik. He sat there and waited. Clinton seemed to head straight over to shake hands with him.

Muallem described his meeting with Clinton to CBS News as "short, but very pleasant," and that he was "happy it happened." He said he was "hoping this Administration would apply their words into deeds on the ground."

The pair of senior diplomats stood for a couple of minutes as Clinton introduced Muallem to her team, including George Mitchell, the new U.S. Mideast envoy - who excluded Damascus from his first trip to the region a couple weeks ago.

The handshake came after weeks of slowly-building diplomacy between the two nations - sparked by the change of power in Washington.

The United States withdrew its ambassador from Damascus after the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri and accused Syria of allowing Islamist fighters to infiltrate Iraq. Cooperation between Syria and Iran has also angered Washington.

In past weeks, several U.S. congressional delegations (most recently, one led by Sen. John Kerry) have visited Syria to try and find a path to renewed relations.

Many observers and analysts of the Middle East peace process (not to Mention Syrian leaders) have stressed the role Syria could play in reconciling Palestinian factions and facilitating negotiations with Israel.




By George Baghdadi, CBS News, March 2, 2009

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton criticized Israel Wednesday over plans to demolish Palestinian homes in Arab East Jerusalem and said Washington would engage Israeli leaders on Jewish settlements.

Calling the planned destruction of more than 80 dwellings "unhelpful," Clinton said after talks with Palestinian leaders: "It is an issue that we intend to raise with the government of Israel and the government at the municipal level in Jerusalem."

Israel says the homes slated for demolition were built without permits.

Palestinians say authorization from Israel's Jerusalem municipality is nearly impossible to obtain. They accuse Israel of trying to drive them out of East Jerusalem, territory captured in a 1967 war, to make room for Jewish families.

Israel considers all of Jerusalem its "united and eternal" capital, a claim that has not won international recognition. The Palestinian Authority wants East Jerusalem to be the capital of a Palestinian state.

At a news conference with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the occupied West Bank, Clinton stopped short of repeating U.S. calls for an immediate cessation of Israeli settlement expansion but promised to follow up on the issue.

"We will be looking for a way to put it on the table along with all the other issues that need to be discussed and resolved," she said.

"I think at this time, we should wait until we have a new Israeli government. That will be soon and then we will look at whatever tools are available," Clinton said repeating her support for creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel.

PEACE PARTNERS

Abbas said that unless Israel's incoming leaders were committed to a two-state solution and halted settlement construction and Jerusalem demolitions, "we will not consider them as peace partners."

Clinton is on her first visit to the region as secretary of state during a time of political transition in Israel, which held an election on February 10 that led to right-winger Benjamin Netanyahu being invited to form a government by April 3.

The Likud party leader's reluctance to commit himself to the creation of a Palestinian state could put him on a collision course with the Obama White House.

With Israel still in political flux and peace talks with the Palestinians stalled, Clinton used her Middle East visit to announce Tuesday a new approach to improve U.S. relations with Syria.

She said two U.S. officials would go to Damascus for preliminary discussions. Political analysts said the overture could pave the way for a resumption of Israeli-Syrian negotiations and weaken Syria's ties with Iran and Palestinian and Lebanese militant groups.

In a show of support for Abbas's Palestinian Authority, Clinton called it the only legitimate government of the Palestinian people.

The Authority has held sway only in the West Bank after Hamas Islamists wrested control of the Gaza Strip from his Fatah faction in fighting in 2007.

The West shuns Hamas over its refusal to recognize Israel, renounce violence and accept existing interim peace deals.

Clinton has said a durable ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, where Israel in December launched a devastating 22-day offensive, hinged on Hamas stopping cross-border rocket salvoes.

By Sue Pleming and Mohammed Assadi, Reuters, March 4, 2009

NEW YORK - Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has intervened in an international custody dispute over an 8-year-old boy, saying Wednesday she is pushing Brazil to return him to his father in New Jersey.

The boy, whose Brazilian mother died last year, is being raised by his stepfather, a lawyer in Rio de Janeiro.

Speaking to NBC's "Today" show from Jerusalem, Clinton said David Goldman has followed the rules "under every known law of international adoption" and should be granted custody of his son. She applauded his efforts to get custody of the boy.

"I did raise it at the highest levels of the Brazilian government," she said.

Goldman's wife, Bruna, took the boy on a vacation to Brazil in 2004 and never returned to the United States. She divorced him, remarried and died last year after giving birth.

Goldman has said he was denied visitation for years.

Clinton said Goldman's case is an example of a problem around the world. She said there were nearly 50 U.S. children in similar situations in Brazil who should be returned to the U.S. — and more around the world.

She compared the case to the Elian Gonzalez custody battle, which ended in 2000 when the administration of her husband, President Bill Clinton, decided that a young boy should be returned to his father in Cuba over the objections of relatives in Miami.

U.S. Rep. Christopher Smith, a Republican from New Jersey, intervened in Goldman's case last month and traveled to Brazil with him.

While Smith was there, Goldman, of Tinton Falls, was able to meet with his son for the first time in nearly five years.

The custody case remains in Brazilian courts - and Brazilian administration officials have said there is little they can do about it. Foreign Minister Celso Amorim told Brazilian media several weeks ago that the case is being handled by the nation's justice system.

Clinton's comments on Wednesday come two weeks before Brazil's President Luiz Inacio da Silva is scheduled to meet with President Barack Obama in Washington. She did not say during the interview whether the presidents would discuss the case.

Goldman did not immediately return a message from The Associated Press on Wednesday.

The Associated Press, March 4, 2009

RAMALLAH, West Bank - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Wednesday promised vigorous and personal involvement in stalled Mideast peace efforts and criticized Israel's demolition of Palestinian homes in Jerusalem as "unhelpful."

Clinton also displayed strong public support for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. The Palestinian Authority is the "only legitimate government of the Palestinian people," she told a news conference, standing next to Abbas.

On Tuesday, Clinton met with Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu.

The hardline leader opposes the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel and supports the expansion of Israeli settlements on war-won land claimed by the Palestinians, including the West Bank and east Jerusalem.

In recent days, Israel has issued orders for the demolition of dozens of Palestinian homes in east Jerusalem, saying the homes were built illegally.

Palestinians say they cannot receive proper building permits from Israeli authorities, and the planned demolitions are means to assert Israel's control over the disputed city.

"Clearly, this kind of activity is unhelpful," Clinton said, adding that she would raise it with the Israeli government as well as municipal officials in Jerusalem. She said such actions violate the "road map," a U.S.-backed peace plan.

Clinton spoke shortly after Israel issued a new order to demolish five residential buildings containing 55 apartments, said Hatem Abdul Qader, a Palestinian official on Jerusalem affairs.

"It's an open demographic war," he said. He said lawyers have challenged the orders, halting the demolitions until March 10.

Stephan Miller, a spokesman for city hall, said the buildings under demolition notice were empty and had been built illegally.

Israel captured east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war and annexed the area. But the annexation is not internationally recognized, and the Palestinians seek east Jerusalem as capital of a future independent state.

Palestinian leaders are watching closely for signs of change in U.S. policy toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The Palestinians were disappointed with the previous U.S. administration's failure to take Israel to task for accelerated settlement construction in 2008, at a time when the two sides were holding U.S.-backed peace talks.

Settlement expansion makes it increasingly difficult to establish an independent Palestinian state.

Abbas said Israel cannot be considered a peace partner if it keeps expanding settlements and demolishes homes in east Jerusalem.

"The Israeli government has to respect its obligations under the road map and the two-state solution and completely stop all that is related to settlement and demolitions," he said.

Abbas has steadily lost support at home, particularly after a year of inconclusive peace talks. His Islamic militant Hamas rivals, who seized Gaza from him in 2007, meanwhile are widely seen as emerging stronger from Israel's recent military offensive against them.

Clinton signaled that she'd be heavily involved in the region, and said her special envoy, George Mitchell, would return soon.

"The Obama administration will be vigorously engaged in efforts to forge a lasting peace between Israel, Palestinians and all of the Arab neighbors. I will remain personally engaged," she said.

"This is a commitment that I carry in my heart, not just in my portfolio."

Her predecessor, Condoleezza Rice, was also a frequent visitor, but made no headway in solving the conflict.

Clinton suggested Wednesday she is not considering imposing solutions, saying it's up to the two sides to reach an agreement. On Tuesday, she said that working toward the creation of a Palestinian state as part of a peace agreement with Israel "seems inescapable."

Clinton said she intends to hold "very constructive talks with the new Netanyahu government." Netanyahu is still trying to form a coalition, and seems headed for a right-wing government.

Abbas and Clinton, meanwhile, talked about Gaza's future. After the Hamas takeover, Israel and Egypt closed the territory, a policy tacitly supported by the international community, which shuns Hamas as a terrorist group.

However, the blockade has come under renewed scrutiny following Israel's three-week military offensive against Hamas, which ended in an informal cease-fire Jan. 18. Some 15,000 homes were destroyed or damaged in the war, meant to halt Palestinian rocket fire on southern Israel, and international aid officials say Gaza's borders need to reopen to make reconstruction possible.

"We want humanitarian aid to get into Gaza in sufficient amounts to alleviate the suffering of the people in Gaza," Clinton said, but stopped short of calling for a full opening of the crossings.

Abbas called for an opening of Gaza's borders to pave the way for reconstruction.

Currently, Israel allows several dozen truckloads of aid to get into Gaza every day, but bars the entry of concrete, pipes and other materials. Israel argues that such shipments could be seized by Hamas and used for building bunkers or rockets.

In Gaza, Hamas condemned Clinton's comments. Spokesman Taher Nunu said her statement "was a slap in the face of those who were expecting changes in America foreign policy. She did not bring anything new. Instead, her statements show bias to the Zionist enemy."

By MOHAMMED DARAGHMEH, Associated Press, March 4, 2009

MOSCOW (AP) - News agencies are reporting that Russia's foreign minister says he will focus on arms control during his meeting next week with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Sergey Lavrov is quoted as saying he'll meet with Clinton in Geneva next Friday.

News agencies quote him Friday as saying arms control will be a priority during the talks. He's also quoted as saying Russia expects the U.S. to form a team of arms-control negotiators.

Russia has hailed the new U.S. administration's intention to start talks soon on a successor deal to the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, which expires in December. That treaty was signed by Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and President George H.W. Bush. It contains a comprehensive control and verification mechanism.

The Associated Press, March 1, 2009

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton this week will make her first foray into Middle East diplomacy, attending a high-level conference on humanitarian assistance to Gaza and making the rounds of Israeli and Palestinian officials, at a time when a growing chorus of voices in the United States say the peace process needs a dramatically new approach.

President Obama won praise by appointing a Middle East envoy on his second full day in office, indicating a commitment to resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The envoy, former senator George J. Mitchell, is making his second tour of the region in a month and will meet with Clinton at the aid conference, which is scheduled to be held tomorrow in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

But neither Mitchell nor Clinton appears to have come up with new ideas for rekindling peace efforts. Clinton's husband, Bill Clinton, devoted the final months of his presidency to unsuccessfully trying to achieve a peace agreement, even sketching a series of groundbreaking proposals -- still known as the "Clinton parameters" -- for bridging the gaps. But much has changed since 2001, and the Bush administration's last-minute effort at peacemaking, known as the "Annapolis process," also collapsed.

Clinton will visit Jerusalem and Ramallah, in the West Bank, on Tuesday and Wednesday before flying to Europe for meetings -- and every word that she utters in the region will be closely monitored for clues to the administration's approach. Israelis, for instance, will be listening for how hard she presses for Palestinian governmental reform and an end to corruption, while Palestinians are eager to hear a tougher U.S. stance on Israeli settlement construction in Palestinian territories. "It would be great to hear an American official say that Israeli settlements are illegal under international law," said Nadia Hijab, senior fellow at the Institute for Palestine Studies in Washington. "But I don't think I will ever live to see that day."

Mitchell authored a plan in 2001 to reduce tensions and make progress. Israelis and Palestinians embraced the plan as fair, but it was never implemented. In a conference call with Jewish American leaders last month, Mitchell said that when he reread his report, he was struck by how much had changed in the past eight years, according to an account of the conversation published by JTA, a Jewish news service. Iran, he said, was not mentioned in the report, but every leader in the region brought up the problem of Iranian influence during his initial tour.

Any new peace effort would be complicated by other factors, including the prospect of a new right-wing Israeli government hostile to the idea of a Palestinian state and the splintering of the Palestinian leadership into a moderate faction that runs the West Bank and a radical group that controls the Gaza Strip. Israel waged war in December against the militant group Hamas, which controls the narrow coastal strip that is home to almost half the Palestinian population, and it has kept a tight grip on crossings into Gaza, making it all but impossible to begin reconstruction.

The administration faces tough decisions: How does it get aid flowing to the Gazans or encourage Palestinian unity without bolstering Hamas, and how does it encourage the new Israeli government to open up crossings, ease settlement expansion and begin to consider talks with the Palestinians? Increasingly, many analysts say, the goals are contradictory and virtually impossible to achieve.

The United States, for instance, intends to make a substantial pledge at the conference, American officials say, but whether much of it can be delivered is unclear.

"It will only be spent if we determine that our goals can be furthered rather than undermined or subverted," Clinton told the Voice of America in an interview Friday. She said aid dollars will "be spent only in service of the goals that will help people feel more secure in their lives and, therefore, more confident that progress toward peace would serve them better than retreating to violence and rejectionism."

Although officially the Israeli government refuses to deal with Hamas -- and U.S. policy dictates that there can be no contacts until the group renounces violence and recognizes Israel -- Jerusalem is negotiating a cease-fire deal with the militant movement via Egypt.

Hamas and its moderate Palestinian rival, Fatah, also have begun talks on creating a unity government, which would complicate U.S. diplomacy. During a meeting in Washington last week, Clinton told Amr Moussa, secretary general of the Arab League, that she hoped such efforts succeeded, according to league Ambassador Hussein Hassouna. But in the VOA interview, she said that unless Hamas meets international conditions for recognition, "I don't think it [a unity government] will result in the kind of positive step forward either for the Palestinian people or as a vehicle for a reinvigorated effort to obtain peace that leads to a Palestinian state."

The issues are so complex that some analysts are advocating a radical rethinking. Elliott Abrams, a deputy national security adviser under President George W. Bush who is now a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, proposed scaled-back goals in a recent article in the Weekly Standard that was highly critical of former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's efforts to reach a deal. "It is time to face certain facts: We are not on the verge of Israeli-Palestinian peace; a Palestinian state cannot come into being in the near future; and the focus should be on building the institutions that will allow for real Palestinian progress in the medium or longer term," he wrote.

From the other side of the political spectrum, Nathan J. Brown, senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, wrote in a paper published last week that the effort to create a two-state solution "has come to a dead end" and that it is "time for a Plan B." He advocated a clear and perhaps even written cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, which could be broadened into an armistice. The effort would require breaking the taboo against speaking to Hamas, but he argued that the taboo has been broken because of indirect negotiations. "The question is whether to make a virtue out of necessity of declaring it open," he wrote.

By Glenn Kessler, The Washington Post, March 1, 2009

WASHINGTON - Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will make her first foray into Middle East diplomacy this week, attending a high-level conference on humanitarian assistance to Gaza and making the rounds of Israeli and Palestinian officials, at a time when a growing chorus of voices on both the right and left say the current peace process needs a dramatically new approach.

President Barack Obama won praise by appointing a Middle East envoy on the second day of his presidency, indicating a commitment to resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The envoy, George Mitchell, is now making his second tour of the region in a month and will meet up with Clinton at the aid conference, which will be held Monday in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik.

But neither Mitchell nor Clinton appears to have come up with new ideas for rekindling peace efforts.

Every word watched

Clinton will visit Jerusalem and Ramallah, on the West Bank, on Tuesday and Wednesday before flying to meetings in Europe - and every word she utters in the region will be closely examined for clues to the administration's approach.

Israelis will be listening for how hard she presses for Palestinian governmental reform and an end to corruption, while Palestinians are eager to hear a tougher U.S. stance on Israeli settlement construction in Palestinian territories.

"It would be great to hear an American official say that Israeli settlements are illegal under international law," said Nadia Hijab, senior fellow at the Institute for Palestinian Studies in Washington. "But I don't think I will ever live to see that day."

Mitchell in 2001 authored a plan to reduce tensions and make progress that both Israelis and Palestinians embraced as fair, although it was never implemented.

In a conference call with Jewish-American leaders earlier this month, Mitchell said that when he reread his report he was struck by how much had changed in the past eight years, according to an account of the conversation published by JTA, a Jewish news service. Iran, he said, was not mentioned in the report but the problem of Iranian influence was brought up by every leader in the region during his initial tour.

By GLENN KESSLER, The Washington Post, February 28, 2009

Even before Secretary of State Hillary Clinton began her trip to Asia last week, she acknowledged that "perhaps we didn't pay an appropriate amount of attention" to the region in recent years.

In fact, the Bush administration insulted Southeast Asia by failing to attend regional meetings that the United States had never missed before. And as Clinton toured the area, she could see that the United States is paying the price.

In all of the states that the Bush administration ignored, China has stepped in as the irreplaceable rich uncle.

From Borneo to Burma, it is China, not America, that Southeast Asian nations now look to whenever they need to build a bridge, a dam, a hospital or have another problem they cannot easily resolve. China's leaders are usually more than happy to oblige.

Consider Indonesia. Clinton spent a day there and praised the nation's democratic institutions. In contrast, Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang spent four days there in December, in part to have a look at a new bridge China is building between Madura Island and the mainland, at a cost of $230 million.

China's largesse does not stop there. Country by country throughout the region, senior Chinese leaders are constant, smiling visitors, and while on these visits they invariably strike new trade deals or make generous financial-aid offers, including these in recent weeks:

-- In Thailand, China provided $500,000 for treatment of victims in a nightclub fire, while also pledging to continue buying most of Thailand's rubber production, despite the economic downturn.

-- In Malaysia, China agreed to a joint venture for pharmaceutical research and pledged funds to pay for new navigational aids in the Straits of Melaka.

-- In Cambodia, China promised $215 million in new aid this year, more than any other country, and is already helping to build roads, dams and other infrastructure.

Of course, the United States also provides many millions of dollars of aid, most of it through the U.S. Agency for International Development. But there's a difference. American aid comes with numerous strings attached. To get it, nations must respond to understandable questions about human rights, women's issues, clean government, environmental concerns ... the list can seem endless.

For example, the United States and dozens of other nations, nongovernmental agencies and donor groups give hundreds of millions of dollars to Cambodia each year - almost $1 billion for 2009. But most of them say they are conditioning that aid on progress tackling endemic corruption, government impunity and other daunting problems.

China worries about none of that. Its foreign policy philosophy of noninterference with other nations' internal affairs proves to be most congenial for the countries it aids. It had only one condition for Cambodia. To get the $215 million, Phnom Penh had to say it agreed with Beijing's one-China policy, a slap at Taiwan.

"Loans or grants from China have released Cambodia from certain kinds of political pressure from international countries," a government spokesman said in December, quoting from a recent speech by Hun Sen, Cambodia's prime minister.

In Washington, meanwhile, before Clinton visited last week, leaders of all the State Department bureaus competed with each other to get their issues, requests and concerns into her talking points. In truth, however, when Clinton first planned her Asian trip, she had no intention of visiting Indonesia, her only Southeast Asian destination.

Her initial plan was to visit Japan, China and South Korea - the very same destinations former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited on her frequent visits to the region.

A senior administration official in Washington told me she added Indonesia to the itinerary only after President Obama asked her to. (He grew up there.)

How did Washington find itself in this fix?

On one of her Asian trips four years ago, Rice flew into a storm of criticism for her decision not to attend the upcoming annual Association of Southeast Asian Nations convention. I was traveling with her, and a senior Asian diplomat told me: "'Lots of people were offended by this decision."

So, to make amends, she took a quick detour from China to visit a Thai school ravaged by the tsunami, rebuilt with U.S. help. Rice's visit lasted 41 minutes; her driver stayed in the car and kept the engine running.

As she left, a Thai reporter asked her: "Why aren't you going to ASEAN?" Thailand's deputy prime minister, who had come along for the visit, snapped: "'Tsunami questions only!'"

Rice said, "I am here to show that I care about Southeast Asia."

By Joel Brinkley, San Francisco Chronicle, March 1, 2009

Just back from Asia, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton next takes on the other side of the world on her second overseas trip as the top U.S. diplomat.

She'll assess peace prospects in the Middle East, reconnect with European allies and remind Russia that U.S. efforts to rebuild relations with Moscow have their limits.

Clinton will try to build on what the Obama administration believes is early enthusiasm for changing the dynamic of relations with America after years of disconnect.

At an international conference in Egypt on Monday, Clinton will announce a pledge of up to US(Canadian) $900 million in humanitarian assistance for the Gaza Strip.

The U.S. says it will not allow aid money to flow through Hamas.

Clinton also will visit Israel to underscore a commitment to a 'two-state solution' to the Israeli-Palestinian situation.




The Associated Press, February 28, 2009

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Hillary Clinton hopes her first trip to Europe as top U.S. diplomat will reconnect the United States with the continent after tensions with the Bush administration, a senior official said on Friday.

Clinton leaves this weekend for a week-long trip to the Middle East and Europe, stopping in Brussels to see NATO foreign ministers on March 4-5, meeting Russia's foreign minister in Geneva and finishing with a stopover in Turkey.

Before the European leg, she will visit Egypt for a donors' conference to rebuild Gaza and also go to Israel and the Palestinian territories.

"The overarching theme is the ... reconnection of the United States with Europe and really a sense of consolidating some of this enormous political goodwill on both sides of the Atlantic and harnessing it to a common agenda," Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs Dan Fried said of the European leg of her trip.

The Bush administration had a fractious relationship with some European allies following its 2003 invasion of Iraq, and sought in its final years to rebuild those ties.

President Barack Obama got a rapturous welcome in Europe during a trip he made in the midst of his presidential campaign last year and European leaders have warmly welcomed his election as president.

Clinton, who was a rival of Obama's until she dropped out of the Democratic Party's race for president, wants to capitalize in on the positive tone that emerged after the election.

"The secretary wants to channel this tremendous positive political energy into action on a common agenda," said Fried.

That common agenda includes Afghanistan as well as help in closing down the Guantanamo Bay prison by European nations taking in some of the security detainees.

The United States is pressing NATO allies to offer up more troops for U.S. and coalition efforts in Afghanistan, and Clinton is expected to push Washington's case for that to happen ahead of a NATO summit in April. NATO's relationship with Russia, which was very strained after the brief invasion of Georgia last summer, would also be on the agenda in Brussels, said Fried.




By Sue Pleming, Reuters, February 27, 2009

On the surface, U.S.-Turkish relations appear stellar, but peel back a layer and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will find a host of bilateral tensions on her visit there next week.

Clinton will make a fleeting trip to NATO member Turkey on March 7, finishing off a weeklong visit to the Middle East and Europe where much of the focus will be on Arab-Israeli peacemaking, in which Ankara is increasingly involved.

There has been a wave of anti-Americanism in Turkey, a Muslim secular, democratic state, particularly following the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq and many of those tensions linger.

"Once you take off the first layer of paint, there are problems," said Zeyno Baran, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute of U.S.-Turkish relations.

One thorny issue is whether the Obama administration views the 1915 killings of Armenians as genocide committed by Ottoman Turks and how it might deal with any plans in Congress to revive a resolution calling it such.

A Turkish official in Washington said the Armenian issue, which poisoned ties in recent years, would be raised, but Ankara wanted the focus to be on areas of cooperation.

"At this moment, we hope that sound judgment will prevail and they will keep this issue from being further politicized. I think it is susceptible to distortion," he said.

In 2007, U.S.-Turkish relations plummeted when Congress took up the issue against the wishes of then-President George W. Bush's administration. Ankara rejects allegations of genocide.

"Strategically, it is important for the United States to have Turkey on its side. A big question is how much of a distraction this Armenian genocide issue will be," said Turkey expert Samuel Brannen of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank.

President Barack Obama referred to the killings of Armenians as genocide during the 2008 election campaign, a view that could make Clinton's trip difficult.

Asked about current policy on the Armenian issue, a senior State Department official was noncommittal.

"The administration is very aware about Turkish views on this and is thinking about this issue in light of all the factors. There is more to say, but none at present," said the official, who refused to be identified.

Baran said if Congress took up the issue, U.S.-Turkish relations would again suffer, and she predicted bilateral ties could be frozen for months, the ambassador recalled and the U.S. Incirlik air base, which is vital to Iraq operations, possibly affected.

MIDDLE EAST ROLE

U.S. officials are playing up Turkey's important role in the region ahead of Clinton's trip and highlighting areas where the two can work together, particularly in intelligence sharing to fight Kurdish PKK rebels in the region.

"The bilateral relationship with Turkey has improved but now we have an opportunity to build on that and build a genuine, close strategic partnership," said senior State Department official Dan Fried.

Clinton wants Turkey to be helpful in convincing its neighbors to allow their territory to become supply routes to Afghanistan, particularly after Kyrgyzstan announced plans to close the U.S. Manas air base, a major transit point for U.S. troops going into Afghanistan.

Turkey is a major player in Arab-Israeli peacemaking and has mediated indirect talks between Syria and the Israelis.

Those talks broke down after Israel's invasion of Gaza in December but Turkish officials have said they are ready to resume mediation efforts once a new Israeli government is in place following elections this month.

While welcoming Turkish mediation with Syria, the Obama administration differs over how to tackle Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip. Washington wants to isolate it, while Ankara feels the Islamist group should not be excluded from any major peace agreement.

Despite differences over Hamas, the Obama administration might now find Ankara an invaluable ally if it tries to reach out to Damascus and Tehran and as it engages in Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking.

Turkey and Iran share important energy agreements and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visited Istanbul last year, but Turkey shares Washington's misgivings about Iran's nuclear program.

By Sue Pleming, Reuters, February 27, 2009

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is using her second overseas trip to assess Mideast peace prospects, reconnect with European allies and remind her Russian counterpart that U.S. efforts to rebuild relations with Moscow have their limits.

She kicks off the weeklong tour by attending an international conference in Egypt, where on Monday she will announce a U.S. pledge of up to $900 million in humanitarian aid for rebuilding of the war-shaken Gaza Strip.

The Palestinians are seeking $2.8 billion. The United States does not recognize the Hamas movement that rules Gaza and will not allow aid money to flow through Hamas. Because of disagreements between the two Palestinian factions, some major Arab pledges — $1 billion from Saudi Arabia, $250 million from Qatar and $100 million from Algeria — have not materialized, an Arab League official said Saturday.

The pledge conference reflects in part a U.S. effort to move quickly to influence events there, where the Islamic militants of Hamas are aligned with Iran and opposed to peace talks with Israel. Hamas is at odds with the other Palestinian faction, Fatah, which controls the West Bank and takes a more moderate approach to Israel.

Clinton also will visit Israel to show President Barack Obama's commitment to finding a "two-state solution" that establishes a sovereign Palestinian state at peace with Israel.

After elections Feb. 10, Israel is operating under a caretaker government. The hawkish Benjamin Netanyahu is attempting to form a coalition government but the timing and outcome are in doubt.

Among leaders Clinton would be expected to visit in Israel are Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, leader of the centrist Kadima Party, which won one more seat in the election than Netanyahu's Likud. Netanyahu, who opposes moving forward in peace talks with the Palestinians, was asked to put together the next government because he has the support of a majority of the elected lawmakers.

Israel edged closer to a government of hawks and right-wing religious parties Friday after Netanyahu failed to persuade Livni to join a coalition that could help avert a showdown with the Obama administration. Obama has pledged to become "aggressively" involved in pursuing Mideast peace.

Clinton also will go to the West Bank to meet with leaders of the Palestinian Authority, including Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and President Mahmoud Abbas.

After focusing her first foreign trip on Asia, Clinton now is trying to build on what the administration believes is early enthusiasm in the Mideast and Europe for changing the dynamic of relations with America.

Daniel Fried, the assistant secretary of state for European affairs, said Friday a main theme of Clinton's visit to Brussels, Belgium, on Thursday will be "a sense of consolidating some of the enormous political good will on both sides of the Atlantic, and harnessing it to a common agenda — not an American agenda but a common trans-Atlantic agenda."

On Friday, Clinton is scheduled to meet in Geneva with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. He had a sometimes rocky relationship with Clinton's predecessor, Condoleezza Rice, a Russian affairs specialist.

Lavrov was quoted by Russian news agencies on Friday as saying he expected the meeting to focus on arms control. That was an issue of great frustration for the Russians during the Bush administration. President George W. Bush abandoned the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty early in his first term in order to accelerate the development of a missile defense opposed by Moscow.

Clinton has said the administration is willing to move ahead quickly on a replacement for the START arms treaty that is due to expire in December, and to consider deeper cuts in nuclear weapons.

Fried said that although the administration is interested in improving relations with Russia, Lavrov will be reminded that the U.S. does not accept the Russian argument that it has a sphere of influence in Central Asia and Eastern Europe that gives Moscow special say on issues like missile defense.

The administration's interest in engaging Russia is tempered by "cautionary notes," Fried said. That includes a concern that Moscow has gone too far in flexing its muscles in places such as the former Soviet republic of Georgia, where Russian troops fought a brief war last summer, and in opposing the NATO membership aspirations of countries including Ukraine, a former Soviet republic on Russia's border.

"The most productive way (to move forward with Russia) is to do so building on areas where we have common interests, but also mindful of our differences — not shying away from them, nor abandoning our values and our friends," Fried said. "That makes for a complicated relationship with Russia."

Clinton plans to wind up her trip with a stop in Ankara, Turkey, to discuss a range of topics, including Obama's review of war strategy in Afghanistan. The Turks think the U.S. should put more focus on expanding and improving the Afghan security forces and on pressing Afghan authorities to reconcile with elements of the Islamic insurgency, rather than on putting tens of thousands more U.S. troops in Afghanistan, as the Obama administration is planning.




The Associated Press, February 28, 2009

US officials are urging that more assistance reach Palestinians in Gaza ahead of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's first trip to the region this weekend.

Clinton left Saturday night for an eight-day trip to Egypt, Israel, the West Bank, Belgium, Switzerland and Turkey. While in Israel she is she is scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, President Shimon Peres and Prime Minister-designate Binyamin Netanyahu.

While neither Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni nor Israel Beiteinu chairman Avigdor Lieberman are on her schedule yet, State Department sources said that it was likely other meetings would be added.

On Friday, Clinton was quoted as saying that the Egyptian-brokered efforts to bring about reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah will only work if the group recognizes Israel.

AFP cited a Voice of America radio report which quoted Clinton as saying "I believe that it's important, if there is some reconciliation and a move toward a unified authority, that it's very clear that Hamas knows the conditions that have been set forth by the Quartet, by the Arab summit."

"They must renounce violence, recognize Israel, and abide by previous commitments, she said of Hamas, "otherwise, I don't think it will result in the kind of positive step forward either for the Palestinian people or as a vehicle for a reinvigorated effort to obtain peace that leads to a Palestinian state."

The centerpiece of her visit will be Monday's donors' conference in Sharm e-Sheikh for aid to the Palestinians affected by the 22-day conflict with Israel this winter. The US is expected to unveil $900 million in new assistance focused on alleviating the humanitarian crisis, though State Department officials said the money would also be used for early recovery efforts and West Bank projects, while the gathering would also serve as a venue for larger issues connected to the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

"We have to get the assistance to where it's most needed," a State Department official said.

He stressed that aid was going and must continue to go through the Palestinian Authority, and gave qualified support for Palestinian efforts to form a national unity government between Fatah and Hamas, though he reiterated the US demand that the latter renounce violence, recognize Israel and honor previous Israeli-Palestinian agreements.

"I think everyone recognizes why in theory having a unified authority among the Palestinians would be a positive step toward statehood, with certain conditions," he said.

His comments echoed statements US representatives, including Middle East envoy George Mitchell, have quietly begun to make. Mitchell is scheduled to meet with Clinton and personally brief on his trip to the region this past week.

However, while Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said Saturday that a national unity government with Hamas must support a two-state solution, a Hamas official said it would "never agree to sit in a government that recognizes Israel."

Though the members of the Middle East Quartet are all set to attend the donors' conference, they are not planning to hold a formal meeting. And while Clinton is expected to have several sideline conversations with her counterparts, the only bilateral meeting scheduled so far is with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

Clinton will continue on to Jerusalem and Ramallah on Tuesday and Wednesday to meet with Israeli and Palestinian leaders.

Also on Saturday, World Bank managing director Juan Jose Daboub, a former finance minister of El Salvador, made his first trip to Gaza. He is the most senior World Bank official to visit the Strip since 2005.

The bank also released a report to be used at the donor's conference detailing funding mechanisms that could be used to help civilians in Gaza, including alternatives to the Palestinian Authority. It called for the continued financing of donor projects involving water, sanitation, electricity, municipal development and the support of nongovernmental organizations.

But the World Bank said in a press release that it sent out on Saturday along with the report that reconstruction was only possible if Israel allowed building supplies into Gaza such as cement, steel, glass, equipment and cash.

"Recovery can begin quickly, provided that sufficient materials and cash are allowed into Gaza in an efficient and predictable manner," Daboub said.

Israel has put restrictions on such materials entering the Gaza Strip out of concern that they will be used to make weapons.

By Tovah Lazaroff, The Jerusalem Post, March 1, 2009

The special U.S. envoy tasked with jump-starting peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians meets today with a vocal opponent of the negotiations.

It will be the first meeting between George Mitchell and Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu since Netanyahu was selected to lead Israel’s next government.

It's the second trip for Mitchell in the first month of the Obama administration, an indication of how determined the president is to make some headway. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is due in the area next week.

Netanyahu wants to promote Palestinian prosperity instead of Palestinian statehood. The Palestinians reject that and want Israel to halt settlement construction in the West Bank. Netanyahu favors settlements. The international community, especially the U.S., would like to see a moderate Israeli government coalition, but moderate parties have been chilly because Netanyahu opposes peacemaking.




The Associated Press, February 26, 2009

WASHINGTON (AP) - U.S. and Syrian diplomats met Thursday in an effort to improve strained ties, though Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said it was too soon to say whether relations would improve.

Syria's ambassador to the United States, Imad Moustapha, met for nearly two hours with Jeffrey Feltman, the State Department's top diplomat for the Middle East. The first such high-level session since September came at the request of the Obama administration, which sought to discuss how to mend the relationship and possibly work together.

Moustapha told reporters the talks were "very constructive" and he expected there would be more meetings in the coming months.

"We believe that this meeting has explored possibilities between Syria and the United States to engage on a diplomatic and political level and also to discuss all issues of mutual concern," the ambassador said. "We think this is a first step and we believe there will be many further meetings."

Clinton had described the meeting as routine, and said the administration was committed to engagement in the Middle East and promoting Arab-Israeli peace.

"It is too soon to say what the future holds," she said.

Clinton goes to the Middle East next week and will attend an international donors conference for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem is expected to participate, but it is not clear whether he will meet with Clinton.

Last week, the State Department said it had invited Moustapha for the meeting to discuss a range of issues. They include U.S. concerns about Syria's support for anti-Israel organizations that Washington regards as terrorist groups; Syria's alleged nuclear program; its involvement in Lebanon; and its human rights record.

U.S.-Syrian relations long have been tense, particularly since the U.S. ambassador was withdrawn by the Bush administration in 2005 to protest Syria's suspected role in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Syria denied involvement but in the uproar that followed was forced to withdraw its troops from Lebanon, ending a 29-year military presence.

The United States has criticized Syria for supporting militant groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah, and accused Syria of not doing enough to prevent foreign fighters from crossing into Iraq. Syria has said it is doing all it can to safeguard its long, porous border.

With the Obama administration's blessing, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and other U.S. lawmakers visited the Middle East last week and stopped in the Syrian capital.

After meeting Syrian President Bashar Assad on Saturday, Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., said there are possibilities for "real cooperation" between the two nations.

Assad has sent signals he wants to work with Washington. He has said he is impressed by President Barack Obama's friendly gestures, but has stressed he is still waiting to see results.

By MATTHEW LEE , The Associated Press, February 27, 2009

WASHINGTON (AP) - A U.S. official says Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is planning to send the administration's new envoy on North Korean policy to consult in Moscow and Asian capitals.

The official who disclosed the plan did so on condition of anonymity because an announcement was pending.

Clinton is expected to announce at the State Department today that Stephen Bosworth will travel to the capitals of four countries that have been working with Washington to get Pyongyang to give up its nuclear program. Those four are Russia, Japan, China and South Korea.

Bosworth, a former U.S. ambassador to South Korea, was named last month as the administration's special envoy to deal with U.S. policy on North Korea.

The Associated Press, February 27, 2009

Secretary Pledges to Meet Regularly With Pakistani, Afghan Counterparts

The United States, Pakistan and Afghanistan will begin regular, trilateral meetings after sessions held among the three nations here this week, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced yesterday.

Talks over the past three days "would have been valuable even if they had simply been bilateral," Clinton said in remarks with Afghan Foreign Minister Rangeen Dadfar Spanta and his Pakistani counterpart, Shah Mahmood Qureshi. But the meetings were "especially meaningful" because "we have all been working together," she said, adding that the governments will come together again in late April or early May.

The unprecedented trilateral talks were part of a U.S. effort to encourage cooperation between the neighboring governments over terrorist inroads in both countries. They came as the Obama administration is conducting a strategic review of the foundering Afghan war effort and of its policies toward Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Delegations from both countries included defense and intelligence ministers, as well as diplomatic chiefs.

"Our basic purpose was to exchange views on the strategic issues now being reviewed in our policy review by the Obama administration," Clinton said. "That goal has been amply fulfilled." No specific agreements were announced.

President Obama's budget released yesterday included an unspecified amount of military and civilian aid for Pakistan. Pakistan has asked for drone aircraft, helicopters and other equipment. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said yesterday that the Predator drone "hasn't come up in my talks." But Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that in general "it's very important that we help resource" the Pakistani military "for a long time" in the future.

Both Spanta and Afghan Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak yesterday praised the sessions and expressed optimism that U.S., NATO and Afghan forces would regain the upper hand over Taliban extremists in Afghanistan. Wardak said he agreed with plans to double the size of the Afghan army but warned against "redefining success" in the war by lowering expectations, as some administration officials have suggested.

"Comments like 'lowering expectations' and 'achieving clear and attainable objectives' create worry in the minds of Afghans, based on the experience of the '90s," Wardak said in a speech to the Center for a New American Security.

Although the United States aided mujaheddin fighters who expelled occupying forces from the Soviet Union in 1989, Washington largely ignored Afghanistan as the Taliban came to power in the subsequent decade. The Bush administration ejected the Taliban after the Sept. 11, 2001, al-Qaeda attacks, which were planned in Afghanistan, but then quickly turned its attention to Iraq. Obama has called Afghanistan the "center" of the U.S. struggle against violent Islamic extremists but has also said the United States should limit its objectives there to preventing its becoming a terrorist launching pad again.

By Karen DeYoung, The Washington Post, February 27, 2009

WASHINGTON (AP) - Senior U.S., Afghan and Pakistani officials ended three days of talks Thursday on the next steps in the war against Islamic extremists, and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the three-way format was so fruitful it would be used regularly in the months ahead.

Clinton told reporters that the next meeting of U.S, Afghan and Pakistani government delegations would be in late April or early May.

This week's talks produced no known breakthroughs, but Clinton said they were in-depth and forthright. They were designed to gather suggestions and ideas from the Pakistanis and Afghans as the administration reviews its approach to the war, which has turned more problematic over the past few years.

In addition to her Afghan and Pakistani counterparts, Clinton was joined in the talks by Richard Holbrooke, the administration's special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, and Gen. David Petraeus, the commander of U.S. forces in the region.

Afghan Foreign Minister Rangin Dadfar Spanta spoke to reporters after meeting separately with Clinton at the State Department.

"I can ensure you Afghanistan is committed with you to address the menace of terrorism and to work together, closely together, on democratization of Afghanistan and its stability," Spanta said.

Later, after meeting jointly with Spanta and Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and other members of their delegations, Clinton underlined the significance of having the Afghan and Pakistani delegations together for candid talks.

"The representatives from both the civilian and military sectors of both governments have been not only forthcoming, but very receptive, listening one to the other," she told reporters.

The Associated Press, February 27, 2009

JERUSALEM (AFP) - US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is pressing Israel to stop blocking aid to the besieged Gaza Strip and will raise the issue during a visit next week, an Israeli newspaper reported on Wednesday.

US Middle East envoy George Mitchell is expected to issue a strongly worded statement on the situation when he travels to Israel this week, Haaretz said.

"Israel is not making enough efforts to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza," the paper quoted US officials as telling their Israeli counterparts last week. "The US expects Israel to meet its commitments on this matter."

Clinton has relayed messages to Israel about the aid issue in the past week, and senior aides have made it clear the question would be central to her visit to Israel on Tuesday.

Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Ygal Palmor said he was unaware of any such messages and the prime minister's office said it would not comment "as long as there is no official US statement" on the issue.

Last week, influential US Senator John Kerry witnessed first-hand the difficulties involved in delivering key supplies to Gaza, which has been under an Israeli blockade since Hamas seized power in June 2007, and is struggling to recover from Israel's devastating 22-day war.

While touring Gaza, Kerry learned that truckloads of pasta were prevented from entering the Palestinian enclave and was told by UN officials that Israel lists rice as humanitarian aid but not pasta, the newspaper said.

Defence Minister Ehud Barak eventually allowed the shipment in following an intervention by Kerry, the 2004 Democratic presidential candidate who heads the US Senate's powerful Foreign Relations Committee.

Israel insists it will not reopen its crossing points into Gaza until Hamas releases Gilad Shalit, a soldier captured by Palestinian militants in a deadly cross-border raid from Gaza in June 2006.

AFP, February 26, 2009