Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, under fire for some of her recent remarks on human rights, insisted yesterday that the Obama administration regards the issue at the same level as economics and international security.

"A mutual and collective commitment to human rights is [as] important to bettering our world as our efforts on security, global economics, energy, climate change and other pressing issues," Clinton told reporters after meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi at the State Department. She said she had raised with Yang the issue of Tibet and a resumption of a U.S.-China human rights dialogue.

"The Obama administration is absolutely committed to a robust, comprehensive human rights agenda," she said. "We're going to look for ways where we can be effective, where we can actually produce outcomes that will matter in the lives of people who are struggling for their rights to be full participants in their societies."

Last month, during her first trip as chief U.S. diplomat to Asia, Clinton provoked human rights activists by saying that pressing China on that issue "can't interfere with the global economic crisis, the global climate change crisis and the security crisis." On matters such as greater freedom for Tibetans, Clinton said, "We pretty much know what [Beijing is] going to say."

Then, while traveling in the Middle East last week, Clinton appeared to play down human rights issues in Egypt and Turkey that had been raised in recent State Department reports, earning her further criticism.

"She has missed unique opportunities," said Rep. Frank R. Wolf (R-Va.), one of the leading congressional voices on human rights. Secretary of State Condoleezza "Rice started out strong and ended weak," he said. "But Secretary Clinton is starting out weak."

Human rights activists were further upset Tuesday by the State Department releasing a statement on Tibet in the name of spokesman Robert A. Wood, after Wood had announced hours earlier that it would be issued in Clinton's name, on the eve of her meeting with Yang. Foreign governments tend to give greater weight to statements issued in the name of the secretary of state or the president, rather than spokesmen or press secretaries.

Wood refused yesterday to discuss "internal deliberations" of the State Department and said: "The statement that we issued last night has the full weight of the secretary. It was cleared by the secretary, and it represents the secretary's views."

Department officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were discussing internal deliberations, said the original announcement was an error. They noted that State had never issued a statement on the anniversary of Tibet's failed uprising against Chinese rule but that on the 50th anniversary, Clinton wanted such a statement despite the awkward timing of the Yang meeting. The meeting was scheduled mostly to discuss planning for the April 2 Group of 20 summit, which will focus on the world economic crisis.

The statement was issued in Wood's name because Clinton decided to address the media herself after the session with Yang, officials said.

Some sources said a draft statement on Tibet was more detailed and explicit, urging, for instance, the release of Tibetan prisoners. But other officials disagreed, saying that those elements were not in the statement when it reached Clinton's office and that she personally strengthened parts of it.

Wang is scheduled to meet today with President Obama at the White House, officials said yesterday.

By Glenn Kessler, The Washington Post, March 12, 2009

Michelle Obama: "This is How Real Change Occurs. One Determined Woman at a Time"

First lady Michelle Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton marked International Women's Day with the presentation of the International Women of Courage award to seven women from all over the world who have fought against discrimination and inequality in their countries.

Clinton said the women each has her own unique experiences and stories, but together they represent all women who strive for justice and opportunity in every country on every continent, usually without recognition. This year's recipients were from Afghanistan, Guatemala, Iraq, Malaysia, Niger, Russia and Uzbekistan.

Earlier today at the White House, President Obama signed an executive order creating the White House Council on Women and Girls to "ensure that our daughters and granddaughters have no limits on their dreams."

Before they addressed the honorees, Clinton and Michelle Obama commented on their unique, shared experience of serving as first lady.

"I know a little bit about the role that Michelle Obama is filling now and I have to say that in a very short time, she has through her grace and her wisdom, become an inspiration for women and girls not only in the United States but around the world," the secretary of state said.

"Let me thank Secretary Clinton - I love saying that," the first lady began her remarks. "I have said this before but the woman who is running this department, this big huge effort has always been such a committed person, friend, supporter to me. We are honored and thrilled to have her serving in this role. She set the bar high in her last post and I'm confident she's going to keep setting the bar high in this post."

Clinton said that the status of women and girls is a key indicator of whether progress is possible in a society and that progress and change do not always come from the hallways of government but rather in daily life and activism in towns and villages around the world.

Obama noted that these women are not just changing their own circumstances, but those of women - and men - all around the world. "This is how real change occurs. One determined woman at a time. And change is coming."

Clinton: "U.S. Has a Lot to Live Up To"

The first lady said that the award recipients teach three important lessons: "One, as women we must stand up for ourselves. The second, as women we must stand up for each other. And finally as women we must stand up for justice for all."

Award recipient Dato' Ambiga Sreenevasan, president of Malaysia's Bar Council, said the award gives these women an opportunity to share their stories, stories that must be told all over the globe in order to build a "meaningful network of support."

Sreenevasan, who was honored for her work and advocacy for democracy and human rights, said that Clinton has inspired women around the world to "reach great heights" and noted that her efforts on women's rights are well known. "Your immortal words that human rights are women's rights and women's rights resonate with all of us here," she said.

Both Clinton and the first lady said that there is still much work to be done. Clinton noted that the event, though in the "venerable" State Department, was held in the Benjamin Franklin room and the reception following it would be in the Thomas Jefferson room.

"Our own country has a lot to live up to but we derive inspiration from those who are struggling so hard just to realize the basic rights that we sometimes take for granted," she said.

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama invoked his grandmother, single mother and two young daughters on Wednesday in creating a White House panel to advise him on issues facing women and girls.

Obama, standing with prominent members of his administration and with his wife sitting nearby, signed an executive order creating an across-the-government council designed to help Cabinet agencies and departments collaborate on ways to make sure women were provided opportunities offered to men.

"I sign this order not just as a president, but as a son, a grandson, a husband and a father because, growing up, I saw my mother put herself through school and follow her passion for helping others," Obama said. "But I also saw how she struggled to raise me and my sister on her own, worrying about how she'd pay the bills and educate herself and provide for us."

He said he signed the order to honor all the women who came before him, such as his grandmother who was a bank vice president but was denied promotions because of her gender. He said the fight for gender equality is far from over.

"So now it's up to us to carry that work forward, to ensure that our daughters and granddaughters have no limits on their dreams, no obstacles to their achievements - and that they have opportunities their mothers and grandmothers and great grandmothers never dreamed of," Obama said. "That's the purpose of this council; those are the priorities of my presidency."

He also said his own experiences with the women in his life reflect the challenges of all women.

"I've seen Michelle, the rock of the Obama family, juggling work and parenting with more skill and grace than anybody that I know," Obama said. "But I also saw how it tore at her at times, how sometimes when she was with the girls she was worrying about work, and when she was at work she was worrying about the girls. It's a feeling that I share every day."

Obama cited statistic to back up his case: Women earn just 78 cents for every dollar men make; 1 in 4 women still experiences domestic violence; women are 49 percent of the work force but only 3 percent of Fortune 500 chiefs.

"When these inequalities stubbornly persist in this country, in this century, then I think we need to ask ourselves some hard questions. I think we need to take a hard look at where we're falling short, and who we're leaving out, and what that means for the prosperity and the vitality of our nation," Obama said.

Obama named senior adviser Valerie Jarrett - herself a single mother - to head the group, which would include Cabinet secretaries and other administration officials. White House aide Tina Tchen (CHEN) would run its day-to-day operations.

The announcement was part of the administration's push to mark Women's History Month.

Later Wednesday at the State Department, first lady Michelle Obama joined Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to present the department's Award for International Women of Courage to seven female activists from Afghanistan, Guatemala, Iraq, Malaysia, Niger, Russia and Uzbekistan who have fought to end discrimination and inequality.

"I know a little a bit about the role that Michelle Obama is filling now and I have to say that in a very short time she has through her grace and her wisdom become an inspiration to women and girls not only in the United States but around the world," the former first lady said by way of introduction.

Mrs. Obama returned the compliment, thanking Clinton her service and dedication to improving living conditions for women and girls.

"As women, we must stand up for ourselves," she said. "As women, we must stand up for reach other. As women, we must stand up for justice for all."

Advocates praised the new panel. The National Women's Law Center applauded the move but added more needed to be done. California first lady Maria Shriver, who is working with the Center for American Progress on a report on women's issues, said the move was a reminder that "we are now what I like to call 'a woman's nation.'"

By PHILIP ELLIOTT , The Associated Press, March 12, 2009

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and China Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi meet in Washington and agree to try to avoid future incidents.

Reporting from Washington -- Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and China's foreign minister agreed in talks Wednesday to try to avoid any more incidents such as the interception of a U.S. surveillance ship by Chinese naval vessels, Clinton said.

The confrontation, which occurred Sunday in the South China Sea, is expected to come up again today, when Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi meets with President Obama at the White House.

A State Department official said Clinton yielded no ground in the meeting, instead "forcefully" restating the U.S. position.

But, discussing the private meeting on condition of anonymity, the official said the Obama administration might be willing to modify some of its procedures to avoid a calamitous encounter.

"There is no compromise here," said an administration official, also speaking on condition of anonymity. "The U.S. position is that the Impeccable was in international waters."

This week's U.S.-Chinese meetings had been scheduled to help plan an upcoming meeting between Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao, but were overshadowed by the maritime dispute.

Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell said the incident led the U.S. defense attache in Beijing to contact the Chinese Defense Ministry. The Pentagon summoned the Chinese defense attache in Washington.

"We believe firmly that what that naval ship was doing in those international waters is not only fully consistent with international law, it is common practice," Morrell said.

The Impeccable was operating in an area of keen interest to the Navy because of a new submarine base in the southern island province of Hainan that is home to some of China's most sophisticated subs. The Pentagon is monitoring China's military buildup and is especially interested in arms that might be used in any conflict over Taiwan.

The U.S. and Chinese interpretations of international law differ sharply.

Pentagon lawyers say that although scientific exploration is banned in another nation's economic zone, military surveys are not. The Chinese have a law on their books banning any kind of foreign military operation in their economic zones.

Bonnie S. Glaser, a China specialist at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said the collision in April 2001 of a Chinese fighter plane and a U.S. EP-3 surveillance aircraft, in which the Chinese pilot died, came during a period of increased surveillance of the Chinese coast by American planes.

In the most recent case, there may have been a similarly sharp increase in U.S. surveillance that caught the attention of China's military.

But she said she doubted that the Chinese want this episode to interfere with building a relationship with the Obama administration.

Clinton stopped in China on her first overseas trip as secretary of State, and top officials of both governments have been emphasizing their interest in collaborating on urgent issues, starting with the global economic crisis.




By Paul Richter and Julian E. Barnes, Los Angeles Times, March 12, 2009

The Obama administration is honoring courageous women around the world and taking steps to promote gender equity in the United States.

At a ceremony at the State Department, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton underscored the administration's determination to defend the rights of women around the world. "We simply cannot solve the global problems confronting us from a worldwide financial crisis to the risks of climate change to chronic hunger, disease and poverty that sap the energies and talents of hundreds of millions of people when half the world's population is left behind," Clinton said.

The remarks came at an event honoring eight women who have displayed incredible courage in the fight for human rights in their homelands.

They include women from Afghanistan, Guatemala, Iraq, Malaysia and Niger. Others come from Russia, Uzbekistan and Yemen.

First Lady Michelle Obama told the gathering that they are an inspiration. "This is how real change occurs -- one determined woman at a time. And change is coming," she said.

Malaysian lawyer and human rights activist Ambiga Sreenevasan spoke on behalf of all eight recipients of the Secretary of State's Award for International Women of Courage. "Ours is a message of hope that something has been achieved, despite the odds," she said.

Earlier, President Barack Obama honored American women of accomplishment at the White House.

He said the United States still has work to do to live up to the promise of true equality for all, especially in the area of equal pay. And he announced he is creating a White House panel to coordinate policy across the government affecting women and girls. "It's a council with a mission that dates back to our founding -- to fulfill the promise of our democracy for all our people," the president said.

He cited the women in his own life, a single mother who struggled to get an education while raising two children, a grandmother who could only go so far in her banking career because of her gender, and a wife who has struggled to balance work and family. "In so many ways, the stories of the women in my life were the stories of women across this country -- a story of unyielding progress and also untapped potential," he said.

The president has also named a new ambassador-at-large for international women's issues. She is Melanne Verveer, who currently heads a non-profit group that grooms women for leadership roles around the world.

By Paula Wolfson, Voice of America, March 11, 2009

In their first public appearance together since the inauguration, first lady Michelle Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton shared a stage today to honor "brave women" from around the globe who have fought to improve the status of women in their home countries.

Obama stood to the right of the lectern as Clinton spoke, her hands folded before her.

"I am especially delighted to thank one person in particular whose presence means a great deal to all of us," Clinton said to applause, "our first lady Michelle Obama."

Clinton turned in Obama's direction.

"Now, I know a little bit about the role," Clinton said to laughter, "that Michelle Obama is filling now. And I have to say that in a very short time she has, through her grace and wisdom, become an inspiration to women and girls not only in the United States but around the world."

The two amicably gave each other enough room and spoke in a manner at once gracious and warm. When it came time for Obama's turn at the podium, she gave Clinton a hug that lasted five long seconds.

"Let me thank Secretary Clinton -- I love saying that.... for that kind introduction. I have said this before, but the woman who is running this department, this big huge effort, has always been such a committed person, friend, supporter, to me," Obama said.

Obama joined Clinton to present the State Department's Award for International Women of Courage to seven women activists, from Afghanistan, Guatemala, Iraq, Malaysia, Niger, Russia and Uzbekistan. The award was created three years ago by then-Secretary Condoleezza Rice. The recipients this year included a former child slave from Niger, an activist who led investigations into military deaths in Russia and a woman trying to stem the tide of deaths of women in Guatemala.

"The women we honor today teach us three very important lessons," Obama told the crowd of more than 300. "One, that as women, we must stand up for ourselves. The second, as women, we must stand up for each other. And finally, as women, we must stand up for justice for all."

The women who stood in a line to her right were each announced: Wazhma Frogh of Afghanistan; Norma Cruz of Guatemala; Mutabar Tadjibayeva of Uzbekistan; Suaad Abbas Salman Allami of Iraq; Veronika Marchenko of Russia; Ambiga Sreenevasan of Malaysia; and Hadizatou Mani of Niger.

The awardees either shook hands with Obama and Clinton or hugged them, depending -- it appeared -- on their culture or comfort level.

Hadizatou Mani from Niger, who was 12 when she was sold into slavery, held her hands together almost limply. Her head was covered by a cream-colored veil trimmed in yellow. She timidly held out her right hand to Obama.

Mani's award recognizes her work with a local NGO in her country to charge the government of Niger with failing to protect her under anti-slavery laws. "It was very difficult to challenge my former master and to speak out when people see you as nothing more than a slave," Mani told the group Anti-Slavery International. "Nobody deserves to be enslaved.... No woman should suffer the way I did."

Mani posed with her award between Clinton and Obama, then walked to the end of the line of women that included Ambiga Sreenevasan, president of the Malaysian Bar Council.

Sreenevasan has fought for religious freedom and women's rights and worked to amend Malaysia's Federal Constitution to make sure that the testimony of women carried the equal weight of men in Shari'a courts. Despite death threats and having a Molotov cocktail thrown at her house, she continues to fight for religious freedom and women's rights.

In Guatemala, activist Norma Cruz has tried to stem the tide of the increasing number of killings of women. As cofounder and director of the Survivors Foundation, Cruz helps hundreds of victims of domestic violence and supports families of women who have been slain. Two years ago, her organization helped investigate and prosecute 30 people who were convicted of murdering women. Women are often targeted by rival gangs as an initiation right in Guatemala, and the women's deaths more often than not go unreported.

Cruz, who has received death threats, told a delegate of the Human Rights Commission, "We are not going to allow one more woman to die."

One awardee was not on stage: Reem Al Numery, a child bride in Yemen who was 12 when she was forced to marry her 30-year-old cousin. Her government would not allow her to attend the ceremony in Washington.

Al Numery's story cast light on the plight of preteen girls in Yemen who are forced to marry, and her fight for a divorce has challenged the Yemeni legal system.

"While my hair was styled for the ceremony, I thought of ways to set fire to my wedding dress," Al Numery recounted her marriage day to American embassy officials, according to materials provided by the State Department. "When I protested, my dad gagged me and tied me up. After the wedding, I tried to kill myself twice."

Al Numery's father will not consent to the divorce and because she is still a minor, a judge declared she must remain married until she is 15, the legal age at which she can make her own decisions.

By DeNeen L. Brown, The Washington Post, March 11, 2009

The United States and China agreed Wednesday on the need to reduce tensions and avoid a repeat of a confrontation between American and Chinese vessels in the South China Sea, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said.

While neither side yielded in their conflicting version of events, Clinton said she and Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi assented that similar episodes should be avoided in the future.

"We both agreed that we should work to ensure that such incidents do not happen again," Clinton told reporters after meeting Yang at the State Department, signaling that the two countries were still at odds over the exact circumstances of what happened.

"We have each stated our positions, but the important point of agreement coming out of my discussions with Minister Yang is that we must work hard in the future to avoid such incidents and to avoid this particular incident having consequences that are unforeseen," she said.

Clinton told reporters that Yang's visit was a "very positive" development, and she looked forward to continuing discussions that she started with him during a trip to Beijing last month to build a "positive, cooperative and comprehensive relationship."

Before their private meeting, neither Clinton nor Yang mentioned the dispute, even as China's Foreign Ministry in Beijing fired back for a second consecutive day at U.S. complaints that Chinese vessels harassed a U.S. Navy mapping ship in international waters on Sunday.

Yang will meet Thursday with President Barack Obama and his national security adviser James Jones and White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said he expected the dispute would be discussed then but not dominate the conversation.

"The incident involving the boats of the two countries will be on the agenda but I don't think that will overshadow" discussions on larger issues, Gibbs said.

At the Pentagon, Defense Department press secretary Geoff Morrell said the U.S. hopes that "face-to-face dialogue in Beijing and in Washington will go a long way to clearing up any misunderstanding about this incident."

Even if diplomatic efforts by Clinton and Yang are successful in toning down the dispute, however, it may be only a temporary lull in a larger military disagreement.

Beijing has long complained about U.S. surveillance operations around China's borders. Without better communications between the two militaries as they operate in the South China Sea, the possibility for future conflict will remain.

On Wednesday, China's Foreign Ministry in Beijing reiterated that the U.S. claims are "gravely in contravention of the facts and unacceptable to China." Beijing says the U.S. ship was operating illegally in China's exclusive economic zone.

U.S. defense officials say the unarmed Navy ship was in international waters and violating no laws. Officials said the USS Impeccable was looking for threats such as submarines, presumably Chinese. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because details of the ship's exact capabilities are sensitive information.

Other U.S. officials have said publicly that the United States will continue to patrol in the South China Sea despite Chinese objections. National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair told lawmakers Tuesday that the incident was the most serious episode between the two nations since 2001, when China forced the landing of a U.S. spy plane and seized the crew.

The tension arose as the Obama administration tries to get Chinese help on a host of foreign policy matters, including efforts to confront Iran and North Korea over their nuclear programs, stabilize Afghanistan and Pakistan and help staunch the worldwide economic meltdown.

Yang did not speak to reporters after his meeting with Clinton but said earlier that the primary point of his visit was to prepare for a meeting between Obama and Chinese President Hu Jinatao that will take place in early April in London on the sidelines of a summit on the global financial crisis.

Clinton said the United States and China share a joint responsibility to make that summit a success and help the world's ailing economies recover. She praised as "a very positive step" the Chinese government's own economic stimulus package, which is aimed at promoting domestic consumption.

"There is a great commitment and willingness on the part of both our government and the Chinese government to play productive and constructive roles in helping to move the world toward this recovery," she said, noting that Yang would also meet Wednesday with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.

In her comments, Clinton rejected criticism from some lawmakers and human rights groups that the administration has downgraded the promotion of human rights in its foreign policy. She noted she had raised such matters, including the situation in Tibet, with Yang.

"Human rights is part of our comprehensive dialogue" with China, she said. "It doesn't take a front seat, a back seat or a middle seat. It is part of the broad range of issues that we are discussing."

At about the time she spoke, members of the U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution sponsored by Democratic Rep. Rush Holt, with 12 co-sponsors, both Democrats and Republicans, that decried China's suppression of unrest in Tibet.

The House speaker, Democrat Nancy Pelosi, said, "If freedom-loving people do not speak out for human rights in China and Tibet, then we lose the moral authority to talk about it in any other place in the world."

The Associated Press, March 11, 2009

Iran's nuclear program prompts Israel to signal possible action in 2010. More sanctions could become an option.

Washington - The Obama administration is settling on an eyes-wide-open approach to Iran that will test the potential for a significant breakthrough in relations. The approach will start with small diplomatic steps, yet be mindful that the window is fast closing on peacefully halting Iran's progress toward a nuclear weapon.

The tougher international sanctions that have also been contemplated are unlikely to get crucial support from Russia and China before the fall at best - and only after the United States is seen as making good on President Obama's campaign pledge to engage with America's adversaries, including Tehran.

At the same time, however, a harder Israeli government is coming on board and sending signals that it will not wait much into 2010 before taking military action against Iranian nuclear sites if diplomacy bears no fruit. So the US is now moving to test the diplomatic channels with Tehran, even before Iran's national elections in June.

The Americans "will engage the Iranians, they will do it before the [Iranian] elections, and they will do it by first sending signals of the will of the US to engage," says a senior European official who spoke on condition of anonymity. He had hours of talks Monday with State Department officials focused on Iran policy.

Last week, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced plans for an international conference on Afghanistan, and she said that, as a neighboring country, Iran was likely to be invited. That announcement raised speculation that American and Iranian officials could make initial direct contacts in the conference's margins.

Secretary Clinton's overtures to Russia - including last week's meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov - are also partly seen as an effort to enlist Russia's support for a new American approach to Iran.

Yet such steps are widely seen as maneuvering around the edges, and they would have to be followed by some larger action - for example, a letter from Mr. Obama to Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Sayed Ali Khamenei - for US engagement with Iran to really get off the ground, Iran analysts say.

"Inviting Iran to a conference on Afghanistan or having ambassadors meet in Baghdad, those are tactical moves, and Tehran is saying it's not interested in tactical overtures anymore," says Alex Vatanka, Islamic affairs analyst at Jane's Information Group in Alexandria, Va. "The Iranians, including the supreme leader, are interested in relations with the US, but what they are interested in is a strategic shift in America's perceptions of the Iranian regime."

The senior European official says he made the same point to his US counterparts, including Dennis Ross, who was recently named a special adviser to Clinton who will focus on Iran. The Iranians see the prospect of relations with the US in broader terms than their nuclear program, the official says.

"In a sense, the future of the regime is at stake," he says. "Their first and only [concern] is the survival of the regime."

That means the Iranians are likely to move slowly on any diplomatic feelers the US may send out. Already, the Iranians are sending signals that they have no intentions of responding quickly.

A speech given by Ayatollah Khamenei last week, in which he called Israel a "cancerous tumor" and blasted the Palestinian Authority for working with Israel, "will only make life difficult in Washington for people arguing for engagement with Iran," Mr. Vatanka says.

Clinton has herself raised the prospect that the Iranians may decide they don't want to negotiate. She has also said they may overestimate America's interest in negotiations and the international community's patience with Tehran.

As a result, the US is also interested in convincing the Iranians that international powers are prepared to take up harsher sanctions if the diplomatic route quickly proves to be a dead end.

But whether the international community would be ready for tougher sanctions even after a failed US attempt at engagement remains in doubt.

The best way to get Iran's attention would be through sanctions on its oil industry, some Iran experts say, especially given the view of some that the Iranian economy is on the brink. Russia, who wouldn't mind seeing the higher oil prices that sanctions would probably spur, might be convinced, these experts say.

Others say that a broad improvement in US-Russia relations will be a determining factor in what the international community does. "China will follow Russia on this issue, so the key is Russia," says Nancy Soderberg, a former US ambassador to the United Nations in the Clinton administration.

But China would be less likely to follow Russia's lead in the midst of a global economic downtown, some analysts counter. In addition, Vatanka of Jane's Information Group says, Western countries are already so little involved in Iran's oil industry that any action they take is unlikely to move Tehran.

"The Iranians have learned to live with the minimum," he says. "I really see nothing in terms of the oil industry that could be a game-changer at this point."

By Howard LaFranchi, The Christian Science Monitor, March 11, 2009

The Obama administration has made clear that it is seeking opportunities for engagement with the government of Iran, and is in the process of reviewing U.S. policy toward the Islamic Republic. During a press briefing in Jerusalem with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton also said that the U.S. remains aware of the dangers Iran poses for the region and the international community:

"We share Israel's concerns about Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons and its continued financing of terrorist organizations like Hamas and Hezbollah. As we conduct our policy review and consider areas where we might be able to productively engage with Iran, we will stay in very close consultation with our friends here in Israel, with the neighbors of Iran in the region, and beyond with those countries that understand what a threat Iran poses today, and what a greater threat it would pose were it ever to be successful in its pursuit of nuclear weapons."

When the U.S. speaks of engagement with Iran, there should be no confusion about the goal, said Secretary Clinton:

"Our goal remains the same: to dissuade and prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons and continuing to fund terrorism. It happens to be a goal that is shared not only with Israel, but with many countries that view Iran through the same prism that we do."

Secretary of State Clinton said that there is no evidence so far that Iran has taken up President Barack Obama's offer of a hand extended in friendship, providing Iran unclenches its fist. But whatever course the U.S. takes regarding Iran, she said, will be done in consultation with U.S. friends and allies.




Voice of America, March 8, 2009

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton recently participated in a donors conference for Gaza recovery in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. At the conference, the United States announced its intent to provide approximately $900 million in assistance in 2009 to the Palestinian people and the Palestinian Authority of President Mahmoud Abbas.

The assistance will be used to address critical humanitarian, budgetary, security, and infrastructure needs. Secretary Clinton stressed that the U.S. has worked with the Palestinian Authority to install safeguards that will ensure that U.S. funding is only used where, and for whom it is intended, and does not end up in the wrong hands.

"Our response to today's crisis in Gaza," said Secretary Clinton, "cannot be separated from our broader efforts to achieve a comprehensive peace. By providing humanitarian assistance to Gaza, we also aim to foster conditions in which a Palestinian state can be fully realized." Such a state must be at peace with Israel and its Arab neighbors and be accountable to its people.

Israel needs to demonstrate to the Palestinians that there are benefits to negotiating if the goal is to live in peace in an economically viable state. For the Arab states, it means signaling through words and deeds that the spirit of the Arab Peace Initiative can begin to govern attitudes toward Israel now. The initiative calls for among other things, a full normalization of relations between Arab states and Israel.

The Palestinians, said Secretary Clinton, "need to break the cycle of rejection and resistance, to cut the strings pulled by those who exploit the suffering of innocent people." Through his commitment to negotiations, Palestinian President Abbas is offering the Palestinian people the option of a peaceful, independent, and more prosperous future, not the violence of Hamas extremists whose tactics, including rocket attacks that continue to this day, only will lead to more hardship and suffering. "These attacks," said Secretary Clinton, "must stop."

It is critical that Palestinian reconciliation efforts result in a Palestinian Authority that abides by the PLO commitments to renounce violence and recognize Israel's right to exist. "Only a Palestinian Authority that adheres to these principles," said Secretary Clinton, "can fulfill the aspirations of the Palestinian people to be free, independent, prosperous and peaceful, flourishing in a viable state of their own."




Voice of America, March 9, 2009

President Obama conceded yesterday that America was not winning the war in Afghanistan and opened the way for negotiations with moderate elements of the Taleban, much as the US did with Sunni tribes in Iraq.

The new strategy, which comes as Mr Obama prepares to send an additional 17,000 US troops to Afghanistan, emerged after a frantic 48 hours of American diplomacy in the region involving new overtures to Iran, Russia and the Muslim world. The fresh approach to Tehran, however, is causing significant concern in Israel and the Arab world, amid fears that Mr Obama is making too many concessions at a time when his own officials say Iran has enough enriched uranium to make one nuclear weapon.

Mr Obama's admission of the dire situation in Afghanistan followed an invitation to Iran by Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, to participate in a regional conference on Afghanistan this month. The offer was part of a broad arc of diplomacy in recent days that marks a decisive shift away from the Bush Administration's more hardline approach to the region. Asked during an interview with The New York Times if the US was winning in Afghanistan, Mr Obama replied "no". He pointed to the success of peeling away Iraqi insurgents from al-Qaeda in Iraq, and said there might be "comparable opportunities" with the Taleban, although he warned that the situation there was more complex than in Iraq.

The British Government has made it clear to Washington that it also supports contacts with the Taleban, and that moves have already been made by Western officials to talk to lower-ranking Taleban fighters. It is part of a new strategy to try to unblock the stalemate that military commanders believe is undermining the campaign.

Yesterday the US military said that 12,000 troops would leave Iraq by the end of September, as Mr Obama seeks to focus on the war in Afghanistan. But, as if to underline the continued security threat in Iraq, a suicide bomber killed 28 people outside a police academy in the first big attack in Baghdad for a month.

The invitation to Iran to attend the Afghan conference, on March 31, sets up the first face-to-face meeting between the Obama Administration and Iranian officials. It fulfils a campaign promise by the President to talk to Tehran without first demanding that it suspends its uranium enrichment programme, which the West suspects is part of a project to develop nuclear weapons.

The Obama Administration, which is due to complete a review of Iran policy soon, is also considering joining talks between Iran and Britain, Germany and France, The Times has learnt.

Mr Obama dispatched two envoys to Damascus over the weekend, initiating the first serious talks between senior US officials and their Syrian counterparts for more than four years. Jeffrey Feltman, a senior State Department official, and Dan Shapiro, a White House national security official, met Walid al-Moualem, the Syrian Foreign Minister. Mr Feltman said the US wanted to see "forward momentum" on peace talks between Syria and Israel, and said Syria could help Middle East stability.

At the same time Mrs Clinton pushed a broad diplomatic engagement with Russia during a meeting with its Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, in Geneva. She went so far as to hand him a large red plastic button with the word "reset" on it - which is what Mr Obama says he wants to achieve with US-Russian relations.

The button also had a Russian word - peregruzka - above it, which was meant to convey the same message. Embarrassingly, Mr Lavrov had to tell Mrs Clinton that it translated as "overcharge" - raising questions about the quality of Russian linguists inside her State Department.

Mrs Clinton and Mr Lavrov talked about the need for a new nuclear arms reduction treaty, and how Russia could help in persuading Iran to abandon its alleged nuclear weapons programme. She repeated the Obama Administration's overtures to Moscow about how a US missile shield in Eastern Europe would not be needed if there was no nuclear threat from Tehran.

The White House also announced that Mr Obama will travel to Turkey next month, making good on another campaign promise to give a speech in a Muslim country.

Some Western diplomats are concerned about Washington's new efforts with Moscow, so soon after Russia's invasion of Georgia and its clear ambition to widen its influence in the region. Yet Mrs Clinton insisted: "We are being extremely vigorous in our outreach because we are testing the waters, we are determining what is possible, we're turning new pages and resetting buttons, and we are doing all kinds of efforts to try to create more partners and fewer adversaries."

By Tim Reid and Michael Evans, The Times, March 9, 2009

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton honored International Women's Day on Sunday, celebrating untapped potential but lamenting how "no nation in the world has yet achieved full equality for women."

The international community has little hope of combatting the complex slew of challenges in the 21st century without the full participation of women, said Clinton.

Equality "is a matter of enhancing global peace, progress, and prosperity for generations to come," she added, as women worldwide rallied to demand equal rights and protest domestic violence.

"Women still comprise the majority of the world's poor, unfed, and unschooled," Clinton noted in a statement issued by the State Department.

"Like all people, women deserve to live free from violence and fear. To create peaceful, thriving communities, women must be equal partners."

Women have a crucial role in tackling major issues such as the global economic crisis, sectarian warfare and terrorism, she said.

"Ensuring the rights of women and girls is not only a matter of justice. It is a matter of enhancing global peace, progress, and prosperity for generations to come."

AFP, March 9, 2009

Ties viewed as key to regional interests of US

WASHINGTON - President Obama will visit Turkey at the end of his European trip next month, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said yesterday. The decision reflects the moderate Muslim nation's central place in Obama's emerging diplomatic approach to the Islamic world.

The trip will partly fulfill Obama's pledge to engage Islamic countries in a substantive way within his first 100 days in office. But the president is not expected to use the Turkey visit to deliver an address on Islam that he has promised to give in a Muslim capital.

Turkey's place on his itinerary gives the administration more time to prepare the Muslim speech as Obama begins new diplomatic efforts with Syria and Iran.

Clinton announced Obama's travel plans after meeting with Turkish leaders in Ankara, the capital, on the last stop of her weeklong trip to five countries.

"We share a commitment to democracy, a secular constitution, respect for religious freedom, and belief and in free market and a sense of global responsibility," she said of the two nations.

Clinton also encouraged peace contacts between Israel and Syria, as two senior US officials made a rare visit to Syria in a sign of warming ties between Washington and Damascus.

Assistant Secretary of State Jeffrey Feltman, who is a former ambassador to Lebanon, and National Security Council official Daniel Shapiro visited Syria. Feltman called their discussions with Foreign Minister Walid Moallem "very constructive" but disclosed no details. The official Syrian news agency said the two sides discussed ways to build ties and exchanged views on the Middle East.

A NATO ally, Turkey is viewed as crucial to aiding the US pullout from Iraq, turning around the Afghanistan war, and blocking Iran's nuclear ambitions.

The Turkish government had advised against the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 and refused to permit US ground forces to launch elements of the attack from Turkish soil.

But Washington and Ankara are now consulting on ways Turkey can help facilitate the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq. Turkey has said it is ready to serve as an exit route for the Americans. The US air base at Incirlik, Turkey, has been used for the transfer of US troops and equipment to Iraq and Afghanistan.

Obama's visit would extend the administration's outreach toward Islamic nations that began when Obama gave his first television interview as president to an Arabic satellite channel. Administration officials said the interview signaled a new approach toward a population dismayed by US policy in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Palestinian territories.

As a non-Arab Muslim nation, Turkey is well placed to serve as a key administration ally on those issues. Governed by a moderate Islamist party, Turkey accommodates religious and secular values in its democratic system, something other governments in the Arab Middle East have been unable to achieve with the same success.

"Turkey is one of those countries that shows that there doesn't have to be a clash of civilizations," said Marc Grossman, a former US ambassador to Turkey.

Obama's visit to Turkey is likely to conclude a European tour scheduled to begin early next month. On his second trip abroad since taking office, Obama's agenda will focus on the worsening global financial crisis and security, particularly the war effort in Afghanistan.

The president will first visit London for the Group of 20 summit on the global economic downturn. He then travels to Strasbourg, France, for a NATO summit expected to include a forceful US appeal for more European troops in Afghanistan.

Then Obama will travel to Prague for a meeting of European Union leaders.

By concluding with a stop in Turkey, Obama is seeking to highlight its importance as a growing market, military ally, and key player in securing oil and future natural gas from the Caspian region, administration officials and outside analysts said.

By Scott Wilson, The Washington Post, March 8, 2009

'Direct diplomacy' with Iran and Syria starts small.

THE OBAMA administration's opening forays into foreign affairs have been as calibrated and cautious as its domestic policy has been bold. Last month President Obama laid out a strategy for Iraq that tracked more closely with that recommended by the military commanders appointed by President George W. Bush than with his own campaign promises. Now Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has opened Mr. Obama's much-promised "direct diplomacy" with adversaries with a couple of low-level contacts with Syria and an invitation to Iran to join a multinational conference on Afghanistan. Ms. Clinton says that she is "testing the waters," and she has been appropriately guarded in her expectations. That's good: A bolder U.S. offer to either country would alarm U.S. allies in the region and probably be rejected.

During her first tour of the Middle East as secretary of state, Ms. Clinton got an earful from Arab rulers alarmed both by Iran's continued belligerence across the region and by the notion that a deal between Washington and Tehran might be in the works. "There's a great deal of concern about Iran in the entire region," she said after three days of talks; a senior State Department official said that Ms. Clinton had expressed doubt in one of her private meetings that Iran would respond to a U.S. offer of engagement. That was only logical, given the latest tirade of Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who called Israel "a cancerous tumor," rejected Mideast peace negotiations and said that Mr. Obama was following the same "crooked path" as Mr. Bush. Ms. Clinton's suggestion that Tehran participate in the Afghanistan conference came on a front where the two countries have collaborated in the past; Iran's initial response was positive.

The outreach to Syria seems more promising to many. Several former senior U.S. diplomats in the Middle East are saying that Bashar al-Assad's regime is eager to improve relations with the United States. Syria seeks an easing of U.S. economic sanctions and would also like to see U.S. mediation of peace talks with Israel. For its part, the administration wants Syria to curtail its material support for Hamas and Hezbollah; both the United States and Israel dream of rupturing Syria's alliance with Iran.

There are big and probably insurmountable obstacles to any such breakthrough. Mr. Assad heads a murderous regime; a United Nations tribunal was established last week to consider political murders in Lebanon that most likely were authored in Damascus. Mr. Assad continues to seek hegemony over Lebanon, something that the United States should not countenance. Israel's next government will probably be led by Binyamin Netanyahu, who promised immediately before his election that he would not return the occupied Golan Heights to Syria.

Yet the Obama administration, Syria and Israel may all benefit by engaging even in negotiations that go nowhere. The appearance of better relations with the United States may attract more European investment and diplomatic support for Syria; it may also inject an irritant into relations between Syria and Iran. Mr. Netanyahu's unwillingness to discuss Palestinian statehood may draw him toward talks with Syria despite his pledges. Such modest movement may be all Mr. Obama can hope for from "direct diplomacy," at least in the short term.

The Washington Post, March 9, 2009

Hillary Clinton headed back to Washington from the Turkish capital of Ankara, having widened the U.S. campaign to restore America's image overseas during her first trip to the Middle East and Europe as secretary of state.

Clinton's tour included an effort to improve relations with Russia, diplomatic overtures to adversaries Iran and Syria, as well as meetings with Palestinian and Israeli leaders, North Atlantic Treaty Organization ministers and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

President Barack Obama will visit Turkey within about a month, in what Clinton said yesterday was "demonstration of the very high value that the president and I place on the relationship with Turkey."

The Obama administration needs NATO ally Turkey to help stabilize Iraq and to mediate in Middle East conflicts involving nations with limited or broken diplomatic ties with the U.S., such as Syria and Iran.

Yesterday acting U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Jeffrey Feltman and White House adviser Dan Shapiro had talks with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem and Bouthaina Shaaban, a political adviser to President Bashar al-Assad in the first high-level contact between the two nations in four years.

The meeting was the first of its kind since the U.S. withdrew its ambassador to Syria after the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri.

Engaging Adversaries

Clinton, during her trip, also extended a U.S. feeler to Iran in another sign of Obama's effort to engage adversaries. She said Iran may be invited to an international conference on the future of its neighbor, Afghanistan.

Iran is resisting international demands to suspend uranium enrichment that might be part of an effort to develop nuclear weapons. Iran denies that it is trying to build atomic weapons and says it seeks only to generate electricity.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Clinton set a timetable to reach a new nuclear arms control treaty at a meeting in Geneva designed to improve relations which had reached a post-Cold War low under President George W. Bush. The 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty expires in December.

Clinton and Lavrov also said they pledged to work together in areas of shared interest such as curbing Iran's nuclear ambitions.

"We think that this is a fresh start, not only to improve our bilateral relationship but to lead the world in important areas," Clinton said. "I deeply believe that improved relations between our two countries will advance the common good."

Missile Shield

Relations chilled after the Bush administration promoted a missile shield in eastern Europe and Russia routed the U.S.- trained Georgian army in a five-day war last August. During Clinton's visit to Brussels earlier in the week, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization agreed to normalize relations with Russia after a seven-month freeze.

In Egypt, Clinton announced a $900 million aid package to the Palestinians at a conference to raise money for the Gaza Strip. She also pledged that the U.S. will pursue a peace agreement between Israel and its Arab neighbors with "vigor and intensity."

In Jerusalem, Clinton mentioned the contentious issue of Israeli settlers continuing to build in the Palestinian territories in a broadcast interview. She said the U.S. would take up such issues after Israel forms a new government following elections last month. She also met with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who governs the West Bank, and Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Likud party leader asked to form the next Israeli government.

Rocket Attacks

During her visit, Clinton said she understood Israel's need to protect its southern towns and cities from Gaza-launched rocket attacks.

The Israeli army last week said that more than 130 rockets have hit the south since Israel and the militant Islamic group Hamas declared unilateral cease-fires on Jan. 18 following Gaza fighting. Hamas is considered a terrorist organization by the U.S. and Israel.

By Viola Gienger, Bloomberg, March 8, 2009

Unlike Straight Talk in Asia Trip, Caution Rules Mideast and Europe Visits

ANKARA, Turkey, March 7 -- When Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton meets with foreign officials, the initial welcome is formal, as in "Greetings, Madame Secretary." But invariably, the officials slip into calling her "Hillary" -- a global brand name on par with "Diana" or "Tiger."

Clinton's celebrity status -- and her skill at exploiting it -- were again apparent during her first visit as secretary to the Middle East and Europe this past week.

At a private dinner with European foreign ministers in Brussels on Wednesday, she was the center of attention, patiently answering questions from her counterparts -- who took the unusual step of bursting into applause after the meal.

When she spoke to hundreds of young political activists at the European Parliament on Friday, President Hans-Gert Poettering gushed that there is "enormous goodwill toward you" in Europe. He later paid her what he probably considered the ultimate compliment -- that her answers "mostly could have been said by Europeans."

But compared with her visit to Asia last month, this trip had a different diplomat on display.

In Asia, Clinton generated headlines with frank remarks, such as when she questioned the efficacy of sanctions against the repressive junta in Burma, spoke openly about a possible succession crisis in North Korea and said she expected to make little progress on human rights in China.

This week, she was more cautious, especially in the Middle East. She was often careful to hew to talking points, and her answers to reporters' questions were more opaque. She also was less available for sustained give-and-take with the reporters traveling with her. Not counting short news conferences, she conducted one briefing for reporters on her plane in seven days of travel.

In Israel, she never publicly mentioned long-standing U.S. concerns about settlement expansion in Palestinian territories. When questioned about settlements in Ramallah, on the West Bank, she avoided uttering a word that might have upset Israeli leaders: Instead of "settlements," she referred to "that issue."

Clinton conducted no interviews with Israeli media, even though secretaries of state generally take time to meet with Israeli reporters. Nor did she meet with Palestinian reporters; instead, she met with a group of high school students, who asked her mostly personal questions.

But, in contrast to the "listening tour" of Asia, Clinton was much more diplomatically active. Throughout the week, she engineered an effort to reach out to nations, especially adversaries, that the Bush administration had spurned.

She dispatched two senior U.S. diplomats to meet with top Syrian officials on Saturday; she extended an invitation to Iran to be part of an international gathering on Afghanistan; and she tried to "reset" relations with Russia by winning NATO approval to restore high-level meetings and by having dinner with her Russian counterpart.

In each case, Clinton said she would look for areas in which the countries could work with the United States, while acknowledging and confronting topics of disagreement.

"We are being extremely vigorous in our outreach because we are testing the waters, we are determining what is possible, we're turning new pages and resetting buttons, and we are doing all kinds of efforts to try to create more partners and fewer adversaries," she said on National Public Radio.

Clinton also had to soothe allies unnerved by some of these moves. Arab and Israeli leaders are worried about the outreach to Iran, while Eastern and Central European countries are wary of potential deal-making with Russia on missile defense.

By week's end, Clinton could claim progress, at least in terms of process. In Syria, Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem and other officials met for about four hours with Acting Assistant Secretary of State Jeffrey Feltman and White House official Dan Shapiro. "We found a lot of common ground today," Feltman told reporters in a conference call from Damascus. "It is my view that Syria can play an important and constructive role in the region." But he added, "The differences between our two countries will require more work."

At a news conference Saturday in the Turkish capital, where she held talks with Turkish officials, Clinton said it was too soon to say whether the United States would send an ambassador to Syria for the first time since 2005.

But she emphasized that the administration will press for peace talks between Israel and Syria, saying that the "importance of this track cannot be overstated." Turkey last year brokered indirect talks between Israel and Syria, but the Bush administration stayed aloof from that effort.

On Saturday, Iran responded positively to Clinton's plans to invite it to the conference on Afghanistan, an overture that could bring the secretary face to face with her Iranian counterpart by the end of the month. "The U.S. and global powers have realized that the issues in Afghanistan cannot be solved without the presence of the Islamic republic," Gholam Hossein Elham, a spokesman for the Iranian government, told reporters in Tehran.

The dinner meeting in Geneva on Friday with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov yielded no breakthroughs on arms control, missile defense or other thorny issues. But the atmospherics were strikingly different than Lavrov's often-stormy sessions with Clinton's predecessor, Condoleezza Rice.

"I hope Hillary will agree with me," said Lavrov after the two diplomats emerged from the dinner. "I venture to say we have a wonderful personal relationship."

By Glenn Kessler, The Washington Post, March 8, 2009

WASHINGTON (AP) - If the Obama administration intends to give up missile defense in Europe as part of a security deal with Russia, as its behind-the-scenes maneuvering seems to suggest, then Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is driving a hard bargain.

On a trip to Europe and the Middle East that ended Sunday, Clinton spoke positively of the prospect of making Europe-based missile defense an integral part of an overall U.S. defense strategy. Her message was that missile defense has value and Washington won't give it up easily.

The uncertain status of missile defense has much to do with the administration's evolving approach to Iran. Its nuclear program and missile-building efforts are the main reasons usually cited to justify missile defenses in Europe.

Clinton made it clear that the U.S. wants more than just a helping hand from Russia. The U.S. wants to see any such assistance pay concrete and dividends in the form of verifiable action by Tehran to halt its nuclear program and scale back missile development. Until those results are achieved, or at least within sight, the administration is likely to keep missile defense as an option.

Talk of a bargain that would remove the missile defense irritant from the U.S.-Russian relationship has centered on a letter President Barack Obama sent Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in February. The note has been interpreted by some as a conciliatory gesture and a possible first step toward linking missile defense in Europe to Russia's assistance on Iran.

It is not clear how the Russians will respond, and Clinton's talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Friday yielded no answer.

Missile defense was a favorite of the Bush administration, but it never has been popular among Democrats. Obama's election was seen widely as signaling a death knell for the proposed European leg of the missile defense system, which would be linked to an existing network of interceptors in Alaska and California and radars elsewhere. Scaling back missile defense ambitions also could produce some of the big savings Obama seeks in a period of tighter budgets.

What seems apparent at this point is that the administration does not intend to bargain away missile defense entirely in exchange for Russian help with Tehran.

In Belgium, at a news conference following a NATO meeting, Clinton said missile defense was "a very important tool in our defensive arsenal for the future." She later said she was referring not just to Iran but more broadly to the concept of deterring non-state adversaries such as terrorist networks from seeking to acquire a nuclear missile years or decades from now.

At another point during her trip, Clinton said "Iran is the name we put to" those emerging and future threats, "but it is a kind of stand-in for the range of threats we foresee." If the present challenge of dissuading Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons proved successful, she seemed to suggest, then missile defense still might be useful because other missile threats might come up later.

What she avoided was offering a quid pro quo. Clinton was careful not to assert that if Russia were to accelerate pressure on Tehran to back down, then the U.S. would scrap its plan to put anti-missile interceptors in Poland and an associated radar in the Czech Republic.

In fact she appeared to suggest that a missile defense in Europe was a good idea even if Iran no longer was a worry - although it would be less urgent.

Such talk may reflect doubt that Iran will change course, although Clinton reaffirmed during the trip that the U.S. wants to engage Iran in talks about its nuclear program and other topics. She told an Arab diplomat at an international conference in Egypt last Monday that she doubts the Iranians will take up the American offer of a dialogue, according to a senior U.S. official who briefed reporters on condition that he not be identified because the conversation was private.

Officially, the administration has not said whether it intends to go ahead with the missile defense sites in Poland and the Czech Republic. It has stuck to the language that Obama used as candidate, that missile defense must be proved reliable and cost effective.

Poland's president said Sunday he believes the U.S. will honor its agreement to build a missile defense base in his country and that scrapping the project to improve ties with Russia would be an unfriendly gesture toward Poland.

One possibility is that Washington and Moscow could move toward agreement, with NATO, to jointly reconfigure current U.S. plans in a way that results in a coordinated system to provide protection of the continent against a range of missiles.

Russia says missile defense in Europe is unnecessary and provocative. Moscow even has threatened to deploy short-range missiles in its westernmost region, bordering Poland, if the U.S. goes ahead. But the rhetoric has since cooled.

By Robert Burns, The Associated Press, March 9, 2009

GENEVA, March 6 -- Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Friday presented her Russian counterpart with a mock "reset button," a gesture designed to symbolize the U.S. desire to retool relations that grew testy during the Bush administration. But an American error in translating "reset" demonstrated how the two countries can still talk past each other and gave Sergei Lavrov, the often-combative Russian foreign minister, an opportunity to tweak Clinton.

Both ministers were all smiles and good cheer as they emerged from their first face-to-face encounter -- a two-hour dinner on neutral ground in Switzerland. They said they had agreed to work closely on stemming proliferation of nuclear materials and reducing their nuclear arsenals, including what Clinton called "the highest priority to our governments" -- completing negotiations on a strategic arms treaty that expires at the end of the year.

"It was a very productive meeting of the minds," Clinton said, one in which the two diplomats focused on common interests and had "frank exchanges" over deep differences about issues such as Russian interference in Georgia and civil liberties in Russia. On such disputes, she said, "we need more trust, predictability and progress." She said the two sides now needed to "translate our words into deeds."

Lavrov, for his part, declared he had a "wonderful personal relationship" with Clinton, adding, "We did not agree on everything, of course, but we agreed to work on every issue." But flashes of Russian annoyance were also evident as he publicly defended the possible sale of missile components to Iran and attacked U.S. recognition of Kosovo.

The meeting was perceived by the Obama administration as a pivotal moment in trying to rebuild the relationship with Russia, and it set the stage for a meeting between the two countries' presidents on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit next month. The administration is preparing a set of proposals for that meeting, including dangling economic cooperation as the Russian economy swoons because of plummeting oil prices.

To that end, before their meal in a hotel conference room with a panoramic view of Geneva, Clinton presented Lavrov with a palm-size box wrapped in a green ribbon. Lavrov opened it and pulled out a yellow-and-black plastic box with a red button that clicked -- a symbol of the Obama administration's determination to "reset" the relationship, as Vice President Biden phrased it last month in Germany.

Lavrov, a tough-minded diplomat, burst out in a smile. At Clinton's urging, Lavrov joined her in jointly pressing the button down for the benefit of the cameras.

The word "Reset" was beneath the button, and the Russian word "Peregruzka" was above it.

"We worked hard to get the right Russian word," Clinton said. "Do you think we got it?"

Lavrov, who never misses an opportunity for a diplomatic jab, bluntly said, "You got it wrong." The word, he pointed out, was two letters off -- it should have been "Perezagruzka." What was there, he added, actually means "overcharge."

Clinton burst out in laughter and declared, "We won't let you do that to us."

At the post-dinner news conference, an unusually jovial Lavrov made a joking reference to the gaffe. "I can say we have already managed to achieve a specific practical result," he declared with mock seriousness. "We have reached an agreement regarding how 'reset' should sound both in Russian and English."

In the days leading up to the meeting, Clinton telegraphed the Obama administration's approach to Russia -- the United States will seek ways to cooperate on such issues as arms control and Iran's nuclear ambitions, while aggressively pushing back against Russian efforts to dominate its neighbors and European energy supplies.

"We don't want there to be any misunderstanding," Clinton told young political activists at the European Parliament in Brussels on Friday morning. "We are entering into our renewed relationship with our eyes open."

Holding the meeting in Geneva, the site of many Cold War arms control negotiations, evoked memories of the long conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union. At the end of the Bush administration, "you had to go back to the Cold War" to find the same level of animosity, one U.S. official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity under rules set by the State Department.

Lavrov, a skilled negotiator, tried to intimidate Clinton's predecessor, Condoleezza Rice, at their initial meeting in 2005, presenting a long list of complaints. But that tough encounter came in the middle of President Bush's tenure, when relations were already on a downward slope and Russian assertiveness was soaring along with oil prices. Diplomats say the Rice-Lavrov relationship never recovered, with Lavrov taking particular delight in needling Rice.

Friday night, according to U.S. officials, Lavrov began the closed-door meeting by telling Clinton he had been closely reading her remarks, even what she had said that day in Brussels. At that point, said another U.S. official who has attended many meetings with Lavrov, he expected the foreign minister to detour into a difficult and polemical attack. But, instead, Lavrov turned the conversation, saying he wanted to search for ways to work together with the United States.

Clinton paved the way for a more cooperative session by persuading NATO foreign ministers on Thursday to restart high-level meetings of the NATO-Russia Council. That body has been suspended for seven months over anger at Russia's incursion into Georgia. Clinton won over objections from Lithuania and other countries once dominated by the Soviet Union by agreeing to strong language defending the independence of Georgia and the Baltic states.

At a news conference Friday before leaving Brussels for Geneva, Clinton also raised the possibility of Russia and the United States cooperating on missile defense, perhaps even to the point of a joint deployment, assuming the technology was proved to work. She emphasized that the effort to build sites for system components in Poland and the Czech Republic -- which Moscow has claimed is aimed at Russia -- is instead targeted against Iran.

In the wake of Clinton's remarks on missile defense, and a letter from President Obama to his Russian counterpart, Dmitry Medvedev, outlining ideas, the Russians have begun thinking about ways to cooperate on missile defense in Europe and reducing the Iranian nuclear threat, U.S. officials said after the meal.

"Missile defense is in response to the growing danger of Iran," the senior U.S. official said. "If the danger is mitigated, we'd look again" at the missile defense deployment in Europe. But officials conceded the Russian reaction thus far is tentative and vague, and the effort to link Iran and missile defense may not amount to much.

By Glenn Kessler, The Washington Post, March 7, 2009

GENEVA (AP) - Russia's foreign minister called Saturday for an end to a decade of failure in global disarmament talks, seeking to build on an upbeat meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Sergey Lavrov said a stalemate at the Conference on Disarmament on issues from atomic bombs to space weapons can be broken now that the U.S. administration is "in favor of multilateral approaches to the maintenance of international security and disarmament."

"The right moment has come today, for the first time after the end of the Cold War, for making real progress in resuming the global disarmament process on a broad agenda," Lavrov told the 65-nation body.

The conference has failed to produce anything of substance since completing the nuclear weapons test-ban treaty in the mid-1990s. Confidence in the body was shattered in the early years of George W. Bush's administration, when the United States withdrew from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and from six years of talks on a biological weapons ban.

Lavrov's tone was markedly different from his last appearance here a year ago, when Russia joined China in challenging the U.S. to eliminate space arms, including defensive shields, and largely ignored Washington's call for all countries to halt production on the fissile material needed for making atomic bombs.

Neither proposal gained much headway, with the diplomatic game largely reflecting the poor understanding between the two superpowers during the last years of the Bush administration.

The United States has labeled the space weapons offer a political ploy to gain a military advantage because it would prohibit an American missile interceptor system from being installed in the Czech Republic and Poland. Meanwhile, Chinese and Russian ground-based missiles that can fire into space would not be covered in the plan, which also says nothing of normal satellites that can be used as weapons against other satellites.

Missile defense has been a major irritant for the two nations, and Russia underscored that issue on Friday. In remarks broadcast before the Clinton-Lavrov talks ended, a spokesman for Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said a U.S. missile shield plan for Eastern Europe would have to be either scrapped or reworked. Still, Russian officials in Moscow hailed "very positive signals" from the new U.S. administration.

On Saturday, Lavrov reiterated his call for making space weapons-free, but highlighted other issues such as the readiness he and Clinton signaled Friday to hammer out a successor treaty to the 1991 START I accord cutting U.S. and Russian nuclear arsenals. It expires in December.

He urged all nuclear powers to engage in nuclear disarmament efforts undertaken by Russia and the United States; future agreements to reduce deployable nuclear warheads and stockpiles; the elimination of intermediate-range and long-range ground missiles; and improved weapons verification for solving conflicts around the world.

On a U.S.-backed proposal to ban fissile material production, Lavrov said Russia was "prepared to start negotiation on a treaty ... which would become an important milestone in the processes of nuclear disarmament and strengthening the nuclear nonproliferation regime."

The material is already partly covered under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, but does not include nonmembers India and Pakistan.

Lavrov said countries needed to work together for the sake of international security.

"We can only solve the problems we are facing now through joint action, by restoring trust in global politics and making collective efforts meeting the interests of all states and the world community as a whole," he said.

By BRADLEY S. KLAPPER, The Associated Press, March 7, 2009

The secretary of State was greeted with applause in the Middle East and Europe, but she and the administration face hard work ahead.

Reporting from Geneva -- If anyone doubted that the "restart" button has been pushed on U.S. diplomacy, look no further than the T-shirt worn by a young gay rights advocate at a question-and-answer session in Belgium last week: "I [Heart] Hillary."

"I must call on this young man," the new secretary of State said.

Clinton took steps toward possible new relationships with Syria and Iran that could redraw the map of the Middle East. She declared herself committed to plowing ahead to build a separate state for Palestinians, despite widespread skepticism about the prospects for such a project.

She held the administration's first high-level meeting with the Russians, trying to build a relationship around President Obama's willingness to take a new look at the controversial missile defense system that the Bush administration began erecting in Eastern Europe.

Yet the Obama administration's initiatives that intrigued the world last week merely represented an opening bid. The offers of better ties that Clinton put in motion followed the advice that the White House has been getting from many sides -- moderate Arab states and the Europeans, among other world powers.

In many ways, this was the easy part. The hard part, some administration officials acknowledge, lies ahead.

The administration has now made a series of gestures to try to win over the Syrians to a better relationship, a change that could deprive Iran, and the militant groups Hezbollah and Hamas, of a key source of support. But the Syrians have done little in return.

Clinton proposed an international meeting on Afghanistan that could bring together U.S. and Iranian officials to collaborate on a subject of mutual concern. Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman said at his weekly news briefing Saturday that Tehran was willing to contribute to security in Afghanistan, and suggested that it might attend the meeting.

"We are ready to help Afghanistan any way possible," Hassan Qashqavi said in response to a question about the conference, according to the official Islamic Republic News Agency.

Sergei Lavrov, Russia's foreign minister, applauded the administration's moves and promised to collaborate on issues such as arms treaties, Iran and nonproliferation. But the Russians left the U.S. side still uncertain about a chief concern: a Russian contract to sell long-range S-300 surface-to-air missiles to Iran.

And Lavrov's body language seemed to suggest that he hasn't lost his taste for tweaking the Americans, as he did often during the Bush years. Russia's top diplomat needled Clinton because her staff had misspelled a Russian word on a small gift she gave him.

Clinton acknowledged that the other side may not be won over easily, or, in some cases, at all. She told an Arab foreign minister who was worried about a possible U.S.-Iranian alliance not to fret, because the Iranians probably wouldn't agree to negotiations with the United States on their nuclear ambitions, a senior U.S. official said.

In fact, when speaking of the U.S. overtures, Clinton said in almost the same breath that the United States was prepared to go ahead without the other countries, if necessary. In the case of Iran, she said that once the United States had exhausted its diplomatic channel, it would begin arguing to allies that they now had no choice but to intensify economic and political pressure on the Islamic state.

The secretary, who has made two long trips in three weeks, was mostly sure-footed in her public appearances, but in Brussels she showed some fatigue.

In appearances Friday, she mispronounced the names of two European Union officials and said that American democracy "has been around far longer than European democracy." The statement brought clucking from the crowd, who remembered Greece's democratic past.

And Clinton's foray into Middle East diplomacy suggested more hard work is ahead.

Her goal of continuing work toward a Palestinian state was applauded by many world leaders, but it appears to put her at odds with Israel's likely next prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who is still trying to form a coalition government. Netanyahu, the leader of the conservative Likud party, has been skeptical of recent efforts to create a separate state.

Palestinians were cheered last week when Clinton criticized Israel's plans to raze 88 houses in predominantly Arab East Jerusalem to make room for an archaeological and historical center. But they noted she was going no further on the issue than the Bush administration had, and that she did not refer to the Israeli presence in the West Bank as an "occupation," as Bush once did.

So it appeared that not everyone was as sure of a fresh start with the new U.S. administration.

The Palestinian newspaper Al Quds complained that she was now "Condoleezza Clinton."





By Paul Richter, Los Angeles Times, March 8, 2009

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Six weeks into the job, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is starting to roll out the Obama administration's approach to the most prickly foreign policy challenges from Arab-Israeli peace to Russia.

In her second foreign trip which ended early on Sunday, Clinton dipped into Middle East peacemaking and promised to work for a "comprehensive" Arab-Israeli peace.

She tried to charm European institutions in Brussels and literally hit the "reset" button in strained U.S.-Russia ties during a dinner with Moscow's foreign minister in Geneva, and then went to Turkey.

Clinton also took first steps to deal directly with traditional enemies, "testing the waters," she said, of a campaign promise of President Barack Obama to engage rather than isolate protagonists as the Bush administration had done.

In Israel, Clinton announced two U.S. envoys would be in Syria this weekend to explore better ties and as part of a U.S. bid to get a more comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace.

While at NATO headquarters in Brussels, she made the new administration's first public overtures toward Iran by inviting Tehran to a conference on Afghanistan, possibly at the end of this month.

But in Israel, where hawkish prime minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu is trying to form a government, Clinton faced a tougher challenge in trying to push for Palestinian statehood, which Netanyahu opposes.

She was criticized by Palestinians for not being tough on Israel over Jewish settlement expansion and the razing of homes in Arab East Jerusalem. She dodged questions on this issue in Israel and saved her comments until a news conference in the West Bank, calling Israeli moves "unhelpful."

At an aid conference for Gaza in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, she continued the Bush administration's harsh language over Hamas, saying not one dime of a U.S. aid pledge of $900 million would go to the militant group that runs Gaza.

Clinton's rhetoric on Hamas was so similar to that of her predecessor Condoleezza Rice that the Palestinian newspaper al Quds ran a story with the headline "Condoleezza Clinton."

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

As she did during her first trip as top U.S. diplomat to Asia last month, Clinton's schedule was packed with back-to-back meetings with presidents and ministers but she also sought out nontraditional diplomacy.

Clinton said the motivation for her work as top U.S. diplomat, was to help children reach their "God-given potential" and she made room in her schedule for youth events.

In the West Bank she gave an interview to a Palestinian youth television station and was asked what she would have done if her daughter Chelsea had been "unfortunate enough" to have been born under Israeli occupation.

"I would love her ... I would never lose hope. I would never give up of the dream of a Palestinian state, no matter what happens," she said.

In Ankara, she appeared on a popular talk show with four female interviewers, answering questions such as when she "last" fell in love (it was with Bill Clinton in 1971); her fashion sense (she said the "fashion gene" skipped her) and what she missed most (sitting in cafes and shopping).

While opening up on Turkish television, Clinton, who is surrounded by a coterie of advisers from her political past, limited access to the journalists traveling with her.

Unlike in Asia where she often briefed the "traveling press," Clinton gave just one in-flight news conference the entire week despite appeals to her staff for more access.

But her celebrity status as former first lady. New York senator and presidential contender was evident, with foreign leaders gushing over the change in administration.

She attracted more than 500 "young professionals" at a European Parliament meeting in Brussels, with 800 more in overflow rooms. One man in the audience, wearing an "I Love Hillary" T-shirt, was an obvious pick for a question.

In Egypt, Arab reporters clapped at the end of her news conference and she was also applauded by European ministers.

But not everything ran smoothly.

In Geneva, where she met Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov for dinner, her gag gift of a "reset" button to symbolize a new chapter in U.S.-Russia relations went awry.

Taped onto the red button was the word reset in English and Russian. The only problem, said Lavrov, was that reset had been incorrectly translated by a Russian-speaker on her staff.

Instead of saying reset, it meant "overcharge" or "overload." Such overloading was evident in her schedule, with Clinton running late for most events.

By Sue Pleming, Reuters, March 8, 2009

WASHINGTON (AP) - If the Obama administration intends to give up missile defense in Europe as part of a security deal with Russia, as early maneuvering seems to suggest, then Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is driving a hard bargain.

On a trip to Europe and the Middle East that ended Sunday, Clinton spoke positively of the prospect of making missile defense an integral part of U.S. defense strategy, even while suggesting it may be less critical in Europe if Iran quit its nuclear program.

What she avoided was offering a quid pro quo. She did not assert that if Russia were to accelerate pressure on Tehran to back down, then the United States would scrap its plan to put anti-missile interceptors in Poland and an associated radar in the Czech Republic.

In fact she appeared to suggest that missile defense in Europe was a good idea even if Iran no longer was a worry - although it would be less urgent.

In Belgium, at a news conference following a NATO meeting, Clinton said missile defense was "a very important tool in our defensive arsenal for the future." She later said she was referring not just to Iran but more broadly to the concept of deterring non-state adversaries such as terrorist networks from seeking to acquire a nuclear missile years or decades from now.

At another point during her trip Clinton said "Iran is the name we put to" those emerging and future threats, "but it is a kind of stand-in for the range of threats we foresee." If the present challenge of dissuading Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons proved successful, she seemed to suggest, then missile defense still might be useful because other missile threats might come up later.

Such talk may reflect doubt that Iran will change course, although Clinton said reaffirmed during the trip that the Obama administration wants to engage Iran in talks about its nuclear program and other topics. She told an Arab diplomat at an international conference in Egypt last Monday that she doubts the Iranians will take up the American offer of a dialogue, according to a senior U.S. official who briefed reporters on condition that he not be identified because the conversation was private.

Officially, the administration has not said whether it intends to go ahead with the missile defense sites in Poland and the Czech Republic. It has stuck to the language that President Barack Obama used as candidate, that missile defense must be proved reliable and cost effective.

One possibility is that Washington and Moscow could move toward agreement, with NATO, to reconfigure current U.S. plans in a way that results in a coordinated system to provide protection of the continent against a range of missiles.

Missile defense was a favorite of the Bush administration, for some of the same reasons Clinton herself spelled out. But it never has been popular among Democrats. Obama's election was seen widely as signaling a death knell for the proposed European leg of the missile defense system, which also consists of interceptors in Alaska and California and radars elsewhere. Scaling back missile defense ambitions also could produce some of the big savings needed in a period of tighter budgets.

Russia says missile defense in Europe is unnecessary and provocative. Moscow even has threatened to deploy short-range missiles in its westernmost region, bordering Poland, if the U.S. goes ahead.

The rhetoric has since cooled. Talk of a bargain that would remove the missile defense irritant from the U.S.-Russian relationship centered on a letter Obama sent to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in February. The note has been interpreted by some as a conciliatory gesture and a possible first step toward linking missile defense in Europe to Russia's assistance on the Iran problem.

Clinton took up the topic with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Geneva on Thursday as part of an initial discussion of issues facing the two countries. But there was no indication either side changed its position or made any breakthroughs. It would seem likely to be among the items on Obama's agenda when he meets Medvedev for the first time, in London late this month.

By Robert Burns, The Associated Press, March 8, 2009

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton hopes during talks with Turkey's leaders on Saturday to bolster ties with the NATO member and help turn around a wave of anti-Americanism in the country, U.S. officials said.

"There is a chance to put us on a better footing in our relationship with Turkey," said a senior U.S. official, who travelled with Clinton from Geneva where she had a dinner meeting on Friday with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

There has been a wave of anti-Americanism in predominantly Muslim Turkey, particularly following the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

The official, who declined to be named, said it was hoped the international goodwill that had flowed from President Barack Obama's election would help to improve the U.S. image in Turkey.

Aside from official meetings with Turkey's president, prime minister and foreign minister, Clinton also plans to reach out to the Turkish people by appearing on one of the country's most popular talk shows, which is hosted by four women.

Her one-day trip to Turkey is also expected to focus on Ankara's role in Middle East peacemaking, particularly in mediating indirect talks between Israel and Syria.

Clinton was in Israel and the West Bank earlier this week where she discussed Turkey's role. She sent two U.S. officials to Damascus this weekend with the Turkish-mediated peace efforts on the agenda.

She also wants Turkey to be helpful in convincing its neighbours to allow their territory to become supply routes to Afghanistan where U.S. and other NATO forces are fighting a Taliban insurgency.




By Sue Pleming, Reuters, March 6, 2009

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton met Saturday with leaders of Turkey, a strategic ally that is key to resolving several U.S. problems including moving the U.S. military out of Iraq, blocking Iran's nuclear ambitions and turning around the war in Afghanistan.

Clinton talked with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan for nearly two hours at his residence before visiting the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, Turkey's national founder. There, she recalled being in Ankara during her husband's presidency and said she had returned to help President Barack Obama promote "the work the U.S. and Turkey must do to forge peace, prosperity and progress."

Erdogan's office said in a statement that the two discussed bilateral relations, the Middle East, Iraq, Afghanistan and combatting terrorism.

Clinton also planned a joint news conference with Foreign Minister Ali Babacan and a meeting with President Abdullah Gul.

Turkey has been a supply route for U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and relations have improved after hitting a low in 2003 when Turkey refused to allow U.S. forces use its territory as a staging ground for the invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.

Turkey has said it is ready to serve as an exit route for U.S. troops pulling out of Iraq. The southern Incirlik air base has been used for transfer of U.S. troops and equipment to Iraq and to Afghanistan.

Turkey, meanwhile, wants the U.S. administration to prevent Congress from labeling the killing of Armenians by Turks a century ago as genocide.

Historians estimate that up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed, an event widely viewed by genocide scholars as the first genocide of the 20th century. Turkey denies that the deaths constituted genocide, saying the toll has been inflated, and that those killed were victims of civil war and unrest.

The Associated Press, March 7, 2009

ANKARA, Turkey - On the road with Hillary Rodham Clinton, two distinct secretaries of state are emerging: the loose, unscripted politician who roamed Asia's neighborhoods and schools, and the tightly controlled diplomat who marched through the Middle East.

From Egypt to Israel and the West Bank, Mrs. Clinton dropped the penchant for plain-spoken analysis she had shown in Asia for a more formal style based on time-tested diplomatic formulations.

When Mrs. Clinton was asked in Ramallah how she felt about Jewish settlements in the West Bank, a cause of strife with Palestinians, she said the United States would raise "the issue" with the next Israeli government. Asked about it again in Brussels, she recited the official American position that settlements were "unhelpful."

In Israel, Mrs. Clinton did not publicly broach settlements at all. And she only gingerly raised the issue of border crossings to Gaza, which Israel has mostly kept closed, drawing criticism from European leaders and human rights groups.

She wrapped up her weeklong trip on Saturday, here in Turkey's sprawling capital, by announcing that President Obama plans to visit Turkey in the next month or so. She declined to say whether Mr. Obama would make Turkey the site of a much-anticipated speech to the Islamic world, but another administration official later said he would not give the speech in Turkey.

Some of Mrs. Clinton's earlier caution is a reflection of the treacherous landscape in the Middle East, where a misplaced phrase can ruffle feathers among constituencies back home and where the grinding business of negotiation takes precedence over more personal encounters. The potential for missteps was even greater this time, with the Israelis in the throes of putting together a new government.

Asia was not without its land mines - North Korea's ailing dictator, for one - but Mrs. Clinton sidestepped one of the biggest by playing down human rights concerns in her talks with China. And the general emphasis of that trip was much more geared toward climate change and public diplomacy.

Some Middle East analysts said the Obama administration had calculated that immediately pushing Israel would make no sense - with so little to gain in a largely paralyzed peace process, and so many thorny domestic challenges of its own.

"Pressuring Israel because we're frustrated with them or because we want to make nice with the Arabs is a dumb policy," said Aaron David Miller, a public policy scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. "Pressuring Israel at the right moment during a peace negotiation that actually promises to produce a breakthrough is much smarter."

Mrs. Clinton's trip did produce two minor breakthroughs: she sent two emissaries to Syria, with which the United States has had little contact after the Bush administration withdrew its ambassador in 2005. And Mrs. Clinton proposed a major conference on Afghanistan, to which all its neighbors, including Iran, would be invited. On Saturday, the Iranian government reacted positively, setting up the prospect of the first face-to-face meeting with the Obama administration.

On Saturday, the American emissaries to Syria - Jeffrey D. Feltman, the acting assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, and Daniel B. Shapiro, a senior director at the National Security Council - met for three and a half hours with Syria's foreign minister, its deputy prime minister and other officials.

"We found a lot of common ground today," Mr. Feltman said in a conference call with reporters, declining to share details. "It's our view that Syria can play a constructive role in the region."

After a meeting with the Turkish foreign minister, Ali Babacan, Mrs. Clinton said she was grateful that Turkey had brokered indirect talks between Syria and Israel. She gave a strong signal that the United States wanted to include Syria in a comprehensive peace process.

"The importance of this track of the peace effort cannot be overstated, and Turkey has played a very important role," she said.

Once Mrs. Clinton left the Middle East, she loosened up. She joked with reporters after a linguistic gaffe in which she handed a red "reset button" to the Russian foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, as a gift, only to be told by him that the Russian inscription was a mistranslation.

In Ankara, Mrs. Clinton appeared on a popular television talk show, "Come and Join Us," a format to which she last subjected herself in Indonesia. She confided to the hostesses that she told her daughter the "fashion gene skipped a generation." When a young man in the audience asked her when she last fell in love, she replied, "It was so long ago, with my husband."




By Mark Landler, The New York Times, March 7, 2009

GENEVA - The United States and Russia tried to mend their frayed relationship by having their top diplomats sit down to dinner here on Friday. Before the appetizer was served, the diplomatic first date had gotten off to an awkward start because of a gag gift gone awry.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, in greeting Sergey V. Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, presented him with a red plastic button emblazoned with the English word "reset" and the Russian word "peregruzka."

The gift was a play on Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr's call in Munich last month for the two countries to "press the reset button" on their relationship.

"We worked hard to get the right Russian word," Mrs. Clinton said, handing the button to Mr. Lavrov. "Do you think we got it?"

"You got it wrong," he replied, explaining that the Americans had come up with the Russian word for overcharged.

"We won't let you do that to us," she said quickly, with a full-throated laugh.

Later, Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Lavrov reported that they had a wide-ranging and positive exchange, laying the groundwork to renegotiate a strategic arms reduction treaty and discussing ways of cooperating on missile defense, a major bone of contention between the countries.

But that hapless red button kept getting in the way. Mr. Lavrov said he hoped the linguistic miscue would "contribute to the advancement of Russian in the United States and English in Russia."

Mrs. Clinton said the faulty translation was more apt than the correct one because in resetting ties, both sides faced an "overload" of work. Mr. Lavrov agreed, saying "the load is enormous in terms of our agenda, but neither Hillary nor I have any desire to get rid of any of that load."

Having exhausted electrical metaphors, Mr. Lavrov then remarked that it was fortunate the United States and Russia were pushing a reset button instead of another red button that would start a war.

State Department officials professed not to know who was responsible for the error. But Mrs. Clinton was accompanied by several diplomats and White House officials who had lived in Russia and speak Russian - any of whom conceivably could have caught it.

Recognizing that the error threatened to overshadow the substance of the meeting, the State Department dispatched several senior officials to brief reporters traveling with Mrs. Clinton.

There were no concrete agreements, the officials said, but the tone of the meeting was constructive - which was an achievement in itself, given that relations between the United States and Russia had chilled to nearly cold-war levels after the war in Georgia last summer.

"I appreciate the openness and willingness of Minister Lavrov to discuss any and all issues," Mrs. Clinton said. "Nothing was off the table. It was, Sergey, a good beginning from my perspective."

Mr. Lavrov, who had a famously stormy relationship with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, concurred.

"I think we can manage to arrive at a common view, both in the context of strategic offensive weapons and missile defense," he said. Asked whether he and Mrs. Clinton got along, he smiled and said, "I venture to say we have a wonderful personal relationship."

He and Mrs. Clinton agreed on a "work plan" that would set the stage for a treaty to replace the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or START, the 1991 pact that expires this year. President Obama and President Dmitri A. Medvedev of Russia will set out a blueprint for the renegotiation when they meet for the first time in London in early April.

Mr. Lavrov and Mrs. Clinton also discussed Mr Obama's recent offer, in a letter to Medvedev, of flexibility in the deployment of a missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic, while seeking increased support from Russia in constraining Iran's nuclear program.

The Russians are "thinking very carefully" about ways to cooperate, said a senior administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, citing the delicacy of the matter. "We're not talking about their good will in helping us to diminish this threat," he said. "We're talking about diminishing the threat."

Russia has signed a contract to supply Iran with long-range S-300 missiles, which experts say Tehran could use to defend its nuclear facilities from an American or Israeli strike. The missiles have not been delivered, but it is not clear whether that is a gesture to the Obama administration.

Mr. Lavrov did not clear things up, saying that Russia's arms sales to Iran were fully legal, but that Moscow understood that the issue stirred uneasiness in the United States and Israel.

Mrs. Clinton stressed that she had not avoided uncomfortable topics, like the war in Georgia. Mr. Lavrov restated Russia's opposition to an independent Kosovo, which Mrs. Clinton championed.

Earlier in the day, Mrs. Clinton promised a rejuvenated trans-Atlantic relationship. At a town hall meeting with 500 interns and others at the European Parliament in Brussels, she called Europe the "essential partner" for the United States in climate change and fighting terrorism.




By Mark Landler, The New York Times, March 6, 2009

GENEVA (AP) - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton says her talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov were a "fresh start" in resetting relations between the two superpowers.

Clinton says the discussions with Lavrov on Friday touched on the two nations' mutual interest in advancing nuclear disarmament and on growing concerns about Iranian nuclear development and instability in Afghanistan.

She said the talks did not produce any formal agreements, but both sides expressed interest in restarting nonproliferation talks. Clinton also expressed gratitude for Russian willingness to allow U.S. nonmilitary shipments to transit through its borders to Afghanistan.

Clinton said they had "a very productive meeting of the minds on the range of issues" expected to be broached in future talks.

The Associated Press, March 7, 2009

BRUSSELS (AP) - President Barack Obama is planning to visit Britain, France, Germany and the Czech Republic for his first trip to Europe since taking office.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced his itinerary at a news conference following a meeting of NATO foreign ministers Thursday.

She said he would be attending a G-20 summit in Britain, followed by a NATO meeting in France and Germany and a U.S.-European Union conference in Prague.

She said the trip will be March 31 through April 5.

By ROBERT BURNS, The Associated Press, March 6, 2009

BRUSSELS (AP) - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is calling for the release of an Iranian-American journalist being held prisoner in Iran.

Clinton was asked at a news conference Thursday what the U.S. government was doing to secure the release of 31-year-old freelance journalist Roxana Saberi. She has reported for National Public Radio and other media.

Clinton said she was concerned about Saberi, and that the State Department is working through Swiss authorities to request information from Tehran. They are seeking information on Saberi's well-being, whereabouts and what Clinton described as the charges made in her confinement.

Clinton said the only acceptable outcome was for Saberi's release and return to her family in North Dakota.

Clinton said she expects a response from the Iranians and she thanked the Swiss for their help.

By ROBERT BURNS, The Associated Press, March 6, 2009

GENEVA, March 6 -- Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Friday presented her Russian counterpart with a mock "reset button," a gesture designed to symbolize the U.S. desire to retool relations that grew testy during the Bush administration. But an American error in translating "reset" demonstrated how the two countries can still talk past each other and gave Sergei Lavrov, the often-combative Russian foreign minister, an opportunity to tweak Clinton.

Both ministers were all smiles and good cheer as they emerged from their first face-to-face encounter -- a two-hour dinner on neutral ground in Switzerland. They said they had agreed to work closely on stemming proliferation of nuclear materials and reducing their nuclear arsenals, including what Clinton called "the highest priority to our governments" -- completing negotiations on a strategic arms treaty that expires at the end of the year.

"It was a very productive meeting of the minds," Clinton said, one in which the two diplomats focused on common interests and had "frank exchanges" over deep differences about issues such as Russian interference in Georgia and civil liberties in Russia. On such disputes, she said, "we need more trust, predictability and progress." She said the two sides now needed to "translate our words into deeds."

Lavrov, for his part, declared he had a "wonderful personal relationship" with Clinton, adding, "We did not agree on everything, of course, but we agreed to work on every issue." But flashes of Russian annoyance were also evident as he publicly defended the possible sale of missile components to Iran and attacked U.S. recognition of Kosovo.

The meeting was perceived by the Obama administration as a pivotal moment in trying to rebuild the relationship with Russia, and it set the stage for a meeting between the two countries' presidents on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit next month. The administration is preparing a set of proposals for that meeting, including dangling economic cooperation as the Russian economy swoons because of plummeting oil prices.

To that end, before their meal in a hotel conference room with a panoramic view of Geneva, Clinton presented Lavrov with a palm-size box wrapped in a green ribbon. Lavrov opened it and pulled out a yellow-and-black plastic box with a red button that clicked -- a symbol of the Obama administration's determination to "reset" the relationship, as Vice President Biden phrased it last month in Germany.

Lavrov, a tough-minded diplomat, burst out in a smile. At Clinton's urging, Lavrov joined her in jointly pressing the button down for the benefit of the cameras.

The word "Reset" was beneath the button, and the Russian word "Peregruzka" was above it.

"We worked hard to get the right Russian word," Clinton said. "Do you think we got it?"

Lavrov, who never misses an opportunity for a diplomatic jab, bluntly said, "You got it wrong." The word, he pointed out, was two letters off -- it should have been "Perezagruzka." What was there, he added, actually means "overcharge."

Clinton burst out in laughter and declared, "We won't let you do that to us."

At the post-dinner news conference, an unusually jovial Lavrov made a joking reference to the gaffe. "I can say we have already managed to achieve a specific practical result," he declared with mock seriousness. "We have reached an agreement regarding how 'reset' should sound both in Russian and English."

In the days leading up to the meeting, Clinton telegraphed the Obama administration's approach to Russia -- the United States will seek ways to cooperate on such issues as arms control and Iran's nuclear ambitions, while aggressively pushing back against Russian efforts to dominate its neighbors and European energy supplies.

"We don't want there to be any misunderstanding," Clinton told young political activists at the European Parliament in Brussels on Friday morning. "We are entering into our renewed relationship with our eyes open."

Holding the meeting in Geneva, the site of many Cold War arms control negotiations, evoked memories of the long conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union. At the end of the Bush administration, "you had to go back to the Cold War" to find the same level of animosity, one U.S. official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity under rules set by the State Department.

Lavrov, a skilled negotiator, tried to intimidate Clinton's predecessor, Condoleezza Rice, at their initial meeting in 2005, presenting a long list of complaints. But that tough encounter came in the middle of President Bush's tenure, when relations were already on a downward slope and Russian assertiveness was soaring along with oil prices. Diplomats say the Rice-Lavrov relationship never recovered, with Lavrov taking particular delight in needling Rice.

Friday night, according to U.S. officials, Lavrov began the closed-door meeting by telling Clinton he had been closely reading her remarks, even what she had said that day in Brussels. At that point, said another U.S. official who has attended many meetings with Lavrov, he expected the foreign minister to detour into a difficult and polemical attack. But, instead, Lavrov turned the conversation, saying he wanted to search for ways to work together with the United States.

Clinton paved the way for a more cooperative session by persuading NATO foreign ministers on Thursday to restart high-level meetings of the NATO-Russia Council. That body has been suspended for seven months over anger at Russia's incursion into Georgia. Clinton won over objections from Lithuania and other countries once dominated by the Soviet Union by agreeing to strong language defending the independence of Georgia and the Baltic states.

At a news conference Friday before leaving Brussels for Geneva, Clinton also raised the possibility of Russia and the United States cooperating on missile defense, perhaps even to the point of a joint deployment, assuming the technology was proved to work. She emphasized that the effort to build sites for system components in Poland and the Czech Republic -- which Moscow has claimed is aimed at Russia -- is instead targeted against Iran.

In the wake of Clinton's remarks on missile defense, and a letter from President Obama to his Russian counterpart, Dmitry Medvedev, outlining ideas, the Russians have begun thinking about ways to cooperate on missile defense in Europe and reducing the Iranian nuclear threat, U.S. officials said after the meal.

"Missile defense is in response to the growing danger of Iran," the senior U.S. official said. "If the danger is mitigated, we'd look again" at the missile defense deployment in Europe. But officials conceded the Russian reaction thus far is tentative and vague, and the effort to link Iran and missile defense may not amount to much.

By Glenn Kessler, The Washington Post, March 7, 2009

BRUSSELS - Setting up the prospect of its first face-to-face encounter with Iran, the Obama administration has proposed a major conference on Afghanistan this month that would include Iran among the invited countries, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Thursday.

"We presented the idea of what is being called a big-tent meeting, with all the parties who have a stake and an interest in Afghanistan," she said at a news conference here after a meeting of NATO foreign ministers. "If we move forward with such a meeting, it is expected that Iran would be invited, as a neighbor of Afghanistan."

Prodded by the United States, NATO's 26 members also agreed to resume high-level relations with Russia, which were suspended in August after the war between Russia and Georgia.

The United States has asked the Netherlands to host the Afghanistan conference, which would take place on March 31, with the United Nations acting as chairman. Iran did not say on Thursday whether it would accept an invitation.

Mrs. Clinton's proposal underscores the administration's belief that Afghanistan may provide the most promising avenue for opening a diplomatic channel to Iran - a major goal of President Obama's foreign policy.

Mrs. Clinton said this week that Iran could play a useful role in stabilizing Afghanistan, noting that its officials consulted regularly with the United States in the early days of the war to oust the Taliban in 2001.

At the same time, she kept up an unyielding tone toward the Iranian leadership. The American plan to install a missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic, Mrs. Clinton said, is driven in part by the threat of Iran, which possesses long-range missiles and is trying to build up its nuclear program.

"There's an ongoing debate about what the status of Iran's nuclear weapons production capacity is," Mrs. Clinton said. "But I don't think there is a credible debate about their intentions."

Her approach reflects the administration's policy of mixing carrots and sticks with Iran - extending offers as a path to engagement, but also maintaining a hard line on issues like nuclear weapons.

The proposed conference would give the United States a forum to present the results of its Afghanistan policy review to its NATO allies. The review is expected to be completed by the middle of March, State Department officials said.

Next week, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. will meet with officials at NATO to offer further details of the emerging American policy, which Mrs. Clinton outlined broadly on Thursday.

She said the international community must view Afghanistan and Pakistan as a "single strategic concern." She called the border region between the countries the "nerve center" for the Sept. 11 attacks; the bombings in Madrid and London; the assassination of the former Pakistani leader, Benazir Bhutto; and the assault on Mumbai, India.

Countering that threat will demand a regional approach and a more integrated civilian and military strategy, she said. It will also require the involvement of all of Afghanistan's neighbors, including Iran, she said.

The United Nations plans to send its special representative for Afghanistan, Kai Eide, to be chairman of the conference, though United Nations officials said Mrs. Clinton had gotten somewhat ahead of them in the planning process. There is debate about the scope of the guest list, administration officials said, with some countries arguing to include only those with troops in Afghanistan, as well as Japan.

But the French foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, said, "I do hope that Iran will be present this time," noting that it did not attend a conference on Afghanistan held in Paris last year.

On another matter involving Iran, Mrs. Clinton said the United States was pressing Tehran on the case of Roxana Saberi, 31, an American freelance journalist who has been detained by Iranian authorities for more than a month on charges that she was reporting without press credentials. Lacking diplomatic ties to Iran, the State Department is working through Swiss intermediaries to secure her release.

The visit to NATO was Mrs. Clinton's first as secretary of state, and she covered a wide swath of topics. Echoing recent remarks by Mr. Biden, she called for a "fresh start" with Russia, even though she said the United States would reject any Russian assertion that it had "spheres of influence" - meaning former Soviet republics like Georgia.

"It is time to move ahead, not wait in place with the illusion that things will change on their own," she declared.

There are several areas where NATO and Russia can work together, she said, including Afghanistan, the drug trade fight, and efforts to stop nuclear proliferation in Iran and North Korea.

On Friday, Mrs. Clinton is scheduled to meet in Geneva with the Russian foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov. He is expected to respond to Mr. Obama's proposal to the Russian president, Dmitri A. Medvedev, of flexibility on the United States' planned missile defense system, while also seeking Russia's cooperation in the campaign against Iran's nuclear program.

The United States had to work hard to achieve a consensus among NATO members on resuming talks with Russia. American diplomats were in the hallways lobbying Lithuania, the last holdout, to go along at a NATO summit meeting in April.

NATO's secretary general, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, said the resumption of high-level consultations did not mean the alliance would drop its objections to Russia’s plan to build military bases in Abkhazia and South Ossetia, the breakaway Georgian regions that prompted the war in August. "It's not a fair-weather forum, and the weather is certainly not fair," he said.




By Mark Landler, The New York Times, March 5, 2009

Hillary Rodham Clinton may have been on another continent Thursday, but she was very much a presence at the White House health care forum.

The gathering of allies and foes of Clinton's failed effort 15 years ago resembled a therapy session at times. Some sought absolution, others felt the need to relive the past and remind the group of everything that can go wrong. And at least one among the 150 people who gathered at the White House was unapologetic about the events of 1993-94.

"I don't consider what happened in the 90s a failure," Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) said. "I'm one of the ones who worked very hard to kill Hillarycare."

It made for a strange juxtaposition: the president fielding advice on how to do things differently than Hillary Clinton, who now serves as his secretary of state and happened to be traveling Thursday through Europe and the Middle East.

Karen Ignagni, president of America's Health Insurance Plans, a successor group to the Health Insurance Association of America, which funded the "Harry and Louise" TV ads that help bring down Clinton's plan, stood before Obama in the East Room at the end of the forum and claimed a conversion.

"We understand we have to earn a seat at the table," Ignagni said. "We've already offered a comprehensive series of proposals. We want to work with you, we want to work with the members of Congress on a bipartisan basis here. You have our commitment. We hear the American people about what's not working. We've taken that very seriously. You have our commitment to play, to contribute, and to help pass health care reform this year."

"Good, thank you," Obama responded. "Karen, that's good news. That's America's Health Insurance Plans."

In one breakout session, the new health czar, Nancy-Ann DeParle, challenged the stakeholders to describe how they will behave differently than they did in the 1993-94. In other sessions, players from the bloody battle served up their own critiques.

"Don't write a bill at the White House," said Donna Shalala, secretary of Health and Human Services in the Clinton administration, referring to Clinton's decision to craft the legislation through a White House task force.

Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.V.) threw cold water on the optimists, warning them not to underestimate the special interests.

"There's all this talk of, 'It's all going to work, we've finally reached it, with the president behind it, people want it,' " he said. "And I go back to the Clinton bill. Every single poll they took showed 72% of Americans said they'd be willing to pay two dollars more for universal healthcare. They didn't mean it. They didn't mean it. They didn't want to do it. ... There are a lot of people who have an interest, and let this be said bluntly, in keeping costs high, in making sure that medical companies make money. That leads me directly to the rudest thing I am going to say, which is the power of lobbyists."

Chip Kahn, president of the Federation of American Hospital Systems, which helped fund the "Harry and Louise" ads, said there needed to be transparency.

But Ezekiel Emanuel, a health care policy specialist in the Office of Management and Budget, raised a sensitive point: "Are you going to run an ad? That's what we really want to know."

Kahn responded that hospitals will contribute to the reform effort and that they know they will have to contribute dollars.

"We're ready to do that as long as it's fair and reasonable," Kahn said.




By Carrie Budoff Brown, Politico, M arch 5, 2009

Clinton proposes a U.N. meeting that would include 'key regional and strategic countries.'

Reporting from Brussels -- The Obama administration moved closer Thursday to resuming diplomatic contact with Iran as Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton proposed an international meeting on Afghanistan that could bring U.S. officials face to face with their longtime adversaries.

Clinton suggested that the United Nations host a meeting on Afghanistan on March 31 that would include "key regional and strategic countries," as well as NATO members and other world powers and international groups.

The United States has limited its relationship with Tehran since the Islamic Revolution swept away the American-backed monarch Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi in 1979. The two sides have had occasional contact and crossed paths at international meetings, such as a May 30 conference on Iraq in Stockholm, attended by then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki. The two didn't speak at the meeting.

U.S. officials have proposed that Kai Eide, the U.N. coordinator on Afghanistan, lead the March 31 meeting, and that U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon give opening remarks. Officials in the Netherlands said they had been asked to provide facilities for the meeting, although U.S. officials said the location was not yet settled.

The meeting would take place two weeks after the Obama administration expects to complete its new policy on Afghanistan. The timing would allow U.S. officials to seek feedback from other countries before a meeting of leaders of NATO members scheduled for early April.

Clinton first raised the possibility of a meeting with the Iranians on Afghanistan on Wednesday while speaking with reporters on her plane during a weeklong overseas trip. She noted that Iran and Afghanistan share a border and that Tehran was consulted regularly by U.S. officials and allies after the United States invaded Afghanistan in 2001.

Earlier, Richard Holbrooke, the U.S. special envoy on Afghanistan and Pakistan, expressed interest in consulting Iran on the question of Afghan stability.

The increasing likelihood of diplomatic contact comes as U.S. officials have spoken harshly about the Islamic regime. Some analysts said the Obama administration may be trying to calm fears among allies, including Israel and Persian Gulf countries, that a U.S.-Iranian detente could leave them vulnerable.

Although U.S. officials are laying plans for possible talks, there are signs that they are also braced for rejection. A senior official said this week that Clinton, trying to calm the fears of the United Arab Emirates, said in a private meeting that Iran may refuse the planned overture.

Also at the NATO meeting, Clinton called for the release of an Iranian American journalist, Roxana Saberi, who has been held by Iranian authorities for a month, accused of "gathering news illegally." Her journalist's license had lapsed.

"There is only one outcome to this, and that is for her to be released as soon as possible to her family in North Dakota," Clinton said.

Clinton and other NATO foreign ministers agreed to restore the organization's ties with Russia, after relations were suspended in August in response to Moscow's incursion into Georgia.

The decision followed a commitment by the Obama administration to "reset" its relationship with Russia, which Clinton said did not mean that U.S. officials would drop disagreements with Moscow.

"We can and must find ways to work constructively with Russia where we share areas of common interest," she said, naming Afghanistan, Iran and North Korea, along with nuclear arms control, as areas where Moscow's help is needed.




Los Angeles Times, March 6, 2009