BAGHDAD (AP) - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says Washington hopes to resume talks with North Korea over its nuclear ambitions.

Clinton says she was "very pleased" with strong U.N. action last week on North Korea, which was hit with new U.N. sanctions on three companies. But she says Washington hopes to resume dialogue with the communist nation.

Clinton's comments Saturday during a stop in Baghdad came hours after North Korea announced it had reactivated facilities to harvest plutonium. The move is a key step away from a 2007 disarmament deal.

The United States and neighboring powers have for years trying to offer North Korea aid in exchange for disarmament.

The Associated Press, April 25, 2009

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Pakistan's nuclear arsenal is currently safe, but Washington has "concerns" over what could happen if the advancing Taliban topples the government, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in an interview with Fox News.

The security of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal is "an issue that we have very adamant assurances about from the Pakistani military and government. We've done a lot of work over the years evaluating that," Clinton told Fox News in an interview in Baghdad.

"I think that the current thinking of our government is that it is safe," she said, according to a transcript of the interview. "But that's given the current configuration of power in Pakistan.

"One of our concerns, which we've raised with the Pakistani government and military is that if the worst, the unthinkable were to happen, and this advancing Taliban encouraged and supported by Al-Qaeda and other extremists were to essentially topple the government for failure to beat them back -- then they would have the keys to the nuclear arsenal of Pakistan," Clinton said.

"We can't even contemplate that. We cannot, you know, let this go on any further. Which is why we're pushing so hard for the Pakistanis to come together around a strategy to take their country back," Clinton told Fox.

More than 1,800 people have been killed in a wave of Al-Qaeda and Taliban-linked extremist attacks across Pakistan since July 2007, when the military stormed the Islamist-occupied Red Mosque in Islamabad.

The United States voiced concerns on Thursday over advances by the Taliban in Pakistan and said the issue was taking up a significant amount of President Barack Obama's time.

AFP, April 25, 2009

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has made a brief, unannounced visit to Beirut where she held talks with the president and foreign minister.

Mrs Clinton called for the upcoming general election on 7 June to be fair and free of outside interference.

She also laid a wreath on the tomb of former Prime Minister, Rafik Hariri.

His killing in 2005 was blamed on Syria and triggered massive demonstrations that led to an end of decades of Syrian control over Lebanon.

It was a very short trip, her first trip ever to Lebanon, with a very powerful message.

Mrs Clinton said Washington supported Lebanon's sovereignty and would never make a deal with Syria that would sell out Lebanon and the Lebanese people.

Resurgent Hezbollah

The Obama administration has started to engage with Damascus after several years of tense ties between Syria and the US.

A senior American official told the BBC that Washington was keen to assure the Lebanese that those discussions would not be at their expense.

Syria is Lebanon's former power broker, but its allies in Beirut, including the militant group Hezbollah, are expected to regain more power in the upcoming polls.

It is a source of worry for Washington, which has made support for Lebanon's army a pillar of the cooperation between the two countries, since a pro-Western government came to power in 2005.

The US official said Washington would have to re-evaluate its military assistance to Lebanon, depending on the makeup of the next cabinet.

Mrs Clinton would not speculate about the outcome of the elections, but said Washington supported the forces of moderation.

The US secretary of state was accompanied by the Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, Jeffrey Feltman, a former ambassador to Beirut.

By Kim Ghattas, BBC News, April 26, 2009

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton completed a three-day Middle East trip intended to reassure Arab allies of U.S. support as the Obama administration begins to pull forces out of Iraq and engage with Iran and Syria.

Clinton's message in Lebanon, Iraq and Kuwait was consistent: President Barack Obama will stand against sectarian violence and attempts by neighboring states to destabilize the region, and won't hurt old friends while trying to build bridges to Mideast adversaries.

In Beirut yesterday, Clinton called for the June 7 parliamentary elections in Lebanon to be "without the specter of violence or intimidation, and free of outside interference."

Syria and Iran support and fund Hezbollah, an influential militant Shiite group and political party that may emerge from Lebanese elections as part of the dominant coalition.

Clinton also pledged that U.S. efforts to thaw ties with neighboring Syria, whose forces once occupied Lebanon, won't be at the expense of Lebanese safety or sovereignty.

In Baghdad on April 25, Clinton promised U.S. support for "a stable, sovereign, self-reliant Iraq" even as the U.S. begins a phased withdrawal of troops starting with the pullout from Iraqi cities by June 30.

Baghdad Bombings

Clinton arrived unannounced in the Iraqi capital after two days of bombings there that killed more than 150 people, many of them Iranian Shiite pilgrims. Clinton said she didn't believe the attacks augured a return to the Sunni-Shiite sectarian violence that engulfed Iraq in 2006 and led President George W. Bush to send military reinforcements.

Iraqi politicians from all sects have condemned the latest violence and urged restraint rather than reprisals.

The Iraqi people and their leaders have been firm in refusing to let the violence "set Iraqi against Iraqi, which is obviously one of its intended goals," Clinton said at a press conference with Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari.

Zebari said he doesn't believe the attacks "will derail government determination to pursue its plans to stabilize the country," and to "ensure there is no vacuum" during the American troop withdrawal.

Clinton said the U.S. believes "some of the recent suicide bombers most likely came across the border through Syria," and that the U.S. and Iraq were raising their concerns with Syrian authorities. The use of Syria as a gateway into Iraq for insurgents has been a persistent concern of the U.S.

Her Confidence

Clinton demonstrated her confidence in the security situation in Iraq by not wearing body armor over her flame-red blazer.

"I read the intelligence reports, and I didn't think it was necessary," she said in a brief aside. "I think we want to send a different message." Clinton said she did wear protective armor on two previous trips, in 2003 and 2007.

Obama, in a visit to Iraq on April 7, encouraged Iraqi leaders to push toward political unity. Obama this month requested an additional $75.8 billion for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan for the rest of this fiscal year.

At each of her stops, Clinton heard concerns from Arab allies about the direction of American efforts to engage Syria and Iran.

A U.S. official said that in Kuwait City on April 24, Clinton privately gave Kuwaiti officials a message that she has delivered to other oil-rich allies: they will be consulted as the U.S. reaches out to Iran. Persian Gulf allies are deeply suspicious of Iran's ambitions and influence with extremist groups in the region.

The U.S. and its European allies are seeking to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon, while Iran insists its nuclear aims are peaceful and lawful.

Planned Talks

The Obama administration has agreed to join planned talks with Iran on the dispute. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on ABC television's "This Week" program that his government is preparing to offer the U.S. and European nations an updated version of a one-year-old proposal for talks about its nuclear program.

Clinton's brief visit to Beirut coincided with the fourth anniversary of the withdrawal of Syrian forces from Lebanon.

"The United States will never make any deal with Syria that sells out Lebanon or the Lebanese people," Clinton said. "It is only right that you are given the chance to make your own decisions."

Hezbollah's campaign so far has emphasized anti-corruption and consensus governance. The group's leader, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, has said it would form a government of national unity in the interests of stability.

Christians and Muslims

From 1975 to 1990, Lebanon was wracked by a civil war that primarily pitted Christians against Muslims. Under Lebanon's political system, the 128-seat legislature must be half- Christian and half Muslim. The pro-U.S. coalition, mostly Sunnis with Christian and Druze allies, has 70 seats.

Hezbollah and its allies have one-third of the seats in the Cabinet.

Since 2006, the U.S. has given more than $1 billion to Lebanon, including $410 million to the country's security forces. The steps followed Hezbollah's month-long war with U.S. ally Israel in 2006.

After meeting with President Michel Suleiman in the Baabda Palace, Clinton visited Martyrs Square and laid a wreath at the tomb of former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri. The U.S. withdrew its ambassador to Syria in 2005 following Hariri's assassination, which investigators linked to Syria. The Syrian government has denied any role in the attack.

U.S. diplomats and lawmakers have met with Syrian officials in Damascus during the past two months, in a sign of warming ties.

By Indira A.R. Lakshmanan, Bloomberg, April 27, 2009

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Secretary of State Hillary Clinton vowed on Sunday that the United States would never sell out Lebanon in any deal with Syria and she urged the Lebanese to hold an "open and fair" election in June.

"There is nothing that we would do in any way that would undermine Lebanon's sovereignty," Clinton told reporters after talks with President Michel Suleiman in Beirut. "The United States will never make any deal with Syria that sells out Lebanon and the Lebanese people.

"You (Lebanese) have been through too much and it is only right that you are given a chance to make your own decisions."

Clinton's three-hour visit to Lebanon came six weeks before Lebanese vote in a general election pitting a Western-backed coalition against an alliance grouping Hezbollah and its allies and backed by Syria and Iran.

"We believe strongly that the people of Lebanon must be able to choose their own representatives in open and fair elections, without the specter of violence or intimidation, and certainly free of outside interference," she said.

"We will continue to support the voices of moderation in Lebanon, and the responsible institutions of the Lebanese state they are working hard to build."

The top U.S. diplomat would not speculate on the outcome of the election but she said: "Moderation is important in the affairs of states," she said.

Washington has recently begun to engage Syria and Iran after years of very tense relations.

Syria and Iran are the main backers of Shi'ite Muslim Hezbollah, a political and guerrilla group which fought a war against Israel in 2006 and which has representatives in the Lebanese government and parliament.

The United States and Arab ally Saudi Arabia support Prime Minister Fouad Siniora and the anti-Syrian Sunni-led coalition that holds a majority in parliament. No side holds a clear lead in polls and June's election is expected to be a very tight race.

HEZBOLLAH POSTERS

Hezbollah criticized Clinton's visit as interference in Lebanese affairs. "The policy of the United States is one of interference," the group's spokesman Ibrahim al-Mousawi told Hezbollah's al-Manar TV.

"This interference is not in the interest of the countries they interfere in but to serve the American interests in the region."

Fears the election could spark large-scale sectarian violence have subsided with engagement between Syria and Saudi Arabia as well as Washington's efforts with Damascus and Tehran.

On its way from the airport, Clinton's motorcade passed a string of mainly yellow Hezbollah election campaign posters with the group's emblem showing a hand carrying an assault rifle.

Clinton's visit coincided with the fourth anniversary of the pullout of Syrian forces from Lebanon.

U.S.-led international pressure and domestic protests forced Syria to end 29 years of military presence in Lebanon after the assassination of Lebanese statesman Rafik al-Hariri in 2005.

Clinton backed a special court set up by the United Nations Security Council to try suspects in the Hariri killing.

Clinton visited Hariri's grave in downtown Beirut and met Hariri's son and political heir Saad al-Hariri who leads the majority coalition.

While U.S. officials were at pains to avoid appearing to interfere in the elections, her decision to visit the grave and see Saad indicated her preferences in the election.

"Our ongoing support for the Lebanese Armed Forces remains a pillar of our bilateral cooperation," Clinton said after her talks with Suleiman.

The senior State Department official said this should not be taken as a guarantee that the United States would continue the military assistance that it has provided in the past.

The Obama administration would have to take a look at the composition of the next Lebanese government and make decisions about its aid in that light, the official said.

The majority coalition wants Hezbollah to disband its powerful guerrilla army and to hand its weapons to the Lebanese army. The group says it needs it arms to defend Lebanon against Israel.

By Arshad Mohammed, Reuters, April 26, 2009

Drew University professor and Methodist minister Donald G. Jones, who was spiritual mentor for a young Hillary Rodham Clinton, died Thursday at age 78.

University spokesman David Muha said Jones - who taught social ethics for 36 years at the Madison school - died at Morristown Memorial Hospital of natural causes.

The sparring between the United States and Israel has begun, and that's a good thing. Israel's interests are not served by an uncritical American administration. The Jewish state emerged less secure and less loved from Washington's post-9/11 Israel-can-do-no-wrong policy.

The criticism of the center-right government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has come from an unlikely source: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. She's transitioned with aplomb from the calculation of her interests that she made as a senator from New York to a cool assessment of U.S. interests. These do not always coincide with Israel's.

I hear that Clinton was shocked by what she saw on her visit last month to the West Bank. This is not surprising. The transition from Israel's first-world hustle-bustle to the donkeys, carts and idle people beyond the separation wall is brutal. If Clinton cares about one thing, it's human suffering.

In fact, you don't so much drive into the Palestinian territories these days as sink into them. Everything, except the Jewish settlers' cars on fenced settlers-only highways, slows down. The buzz of business gives way to the clunking of hammers.

The whole desolate West Bank scene is punctuated with garrison-like settlements on hilltops. If you're looking for a primer on colonialism, this is not a bad place to start.

Most Israelis never see this, unless they're in the army. Clinton witnessed it. She was, I understand, troubled by the humiliation around her.

Now, she has warned Netanyahu to get off "the sidelines" with respect to Palestinian peace efforts. Remember that the Israeli prime minister and his right-wing Likud party have still not accepted even the theory of a two-state solution.

In House testimony last week, Clinton said: "For Israel to get the kind of strong support it is looking for vis-a-vis Iran, it can't stay on the sidelines with respect to the Palestinians and the peace efforts. They go hand in hand."

That was a direct rebuke to comments from Netanyahu aides who told the Washington Post Israel would not move on peace talks until it sees the United States check Iran's nuclear program and rising regional influence.

Although I don't agree with the forms of linkage being made by Netanyahu and Clinton between Iran and an Israeli-Palestinian peace - the issue is not how to threaten Iran but how to bring it inside the tent - I agree with both of them that a link exists. At Madrid, at Oslo and at Annapolis, over a 16-year span, attempts were made to advance peace while excluding Iran. That doesn't work; it won't work now.

The trick is to usher Israel-Palestine peace efforts and the quest for a U.S.-Iran rapprochement along in parallel.

That's why it's so important that Clinton told Netanyahu that he can't slip away from working for peace - and that means stopping settlements now - by taking an Iran detour.

Clinton also indicated an important shift on Hamas, which the State Department calls a terrorist group. While stressing that no funds would flow to Hamas "or any entity controlled by it," she argued for keeping American options open on a possible Palestinian unity government between the moderate Fatah and Hamas.

So long as a unity government meets three conditions - renounces violence, recognizes Israel's right to exist and abides by past agreements - the United States would be prepared to deal with it, including on $900 million in proposed aid, Clinton indicated. Washington does business with a Lebanese government in which Hezbollah controls 11 of 30 seats, although Hezbollah is also deemed a terrorist group.

Such a changed U.S. policy makes a lot more sense than the previous one, which insisted on Hamas itself - rather than any Palestinian unity government - meeting the three conditions. No peace can be made by pretending Hamas does not exist, which is why advancing Palestinian unity must be a U.S. priority.

This sensible shift will anger Israel, although it deals indirectly with Hamas through Egypt. Israel's de jure stand on Hamas - that it must recognize Israel before any talks begin - is wildly at odds with Israel's de facto methodology since 1948.

So it's a week in which I cheer Clinton, although her reference to "crippling sanctions" against Iran if the proposed rapprochement fails was a mistake. Sanctions haven't worked and won't.

Tehran will not come to the table if it sees Obama's extended hand as just a deceptive prelude to "crippling" measures. My advice to Tehran: watch what Obama says. He's driving Iran policy.

Obama's doing it in a way that means the Israeli-American friction evident in Clinton's remarks will be a theme of his first year in office. As Lee Hamilton, the president of the Woodrow Wilson Center, told me: "Initiatives are underway that show the United States is going to have some major differences with Israel."

He also said Netanyahu is "a little more flexible than maybe he's given credit for."

Netanyahu as Begin the peacemaker? It's not impossible. Nor is Obama to Tehran. Provided the president pushes on the two fronts at once.

By ROGER COHEN, The New York Times, April 26, 2009

BAGHDAD (AP) - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton sought to assure Iraqis on Saturday that the Obama administration would not abandon their country even as it presses ahead with plans to withdraw American troops amid a recent surge in violence.

Clinton said the drawdown would be handled in a "responsible and careful way" and would not affect efforts to improve Iraq's security forces, or complete reconstruction and development projects.

But Iraqis, and particularly their security forces, need to overcome sectarian and other differences if they are to build a united, secure nation, she said.

"Let me assure you and repeat what President Obama said, we are committed to Iraq, we want to see a stable, sovereign, self-reliant Iraq," she told a nervous but receptive crowd at a town hall meeting at the U.S. Embassy in the capital.

"We are very committed, but the nature of our commitment may look somewhat different because we are going to be withdrawing our combat troops over the next couple of years," Clinton said.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari welcomed the overture.

"The secretary's message today to all of us was a very assuring message that the United States would continue to support the efforts of the Iraqi government and the enhancement of Iraqi security and stability," he said later at a joint news conference.

He also said he had reaffirmed the government's commitment to the timetable despite concerns that the uptick in attacks could prompt a need to reconsider a June 30 deadline for the United States to withdraw combat soldiers from Iraqi cities.

"We are doing our utmost and we are coordinating very closely with the multinational forces to ensure that there is no vacuum when that happens, that security is viable," he said.

On her first trip to Iraq as America's top diplomat, Clinton said the country has made great strides despite the recent surge in violence. High-profile attacks this past week primarily targeted Shiite worshippers. More than 150 people, many of them Iranian pilgrims, have died.

"I condemn these violent recent efforts to disrupt the progress that Iraq is making," she said at the news conference with Zebari.

Clinton called the attacks a sign that extremists are afraid the Iraqi government is succeeding.

Iran's supreme leader blamed the United States and Israel for the attacks. "Dirty hands and evil brains that founded this blind and uncontrolled terrorism in Iraq should know that the fire will burn themselves," Iran's state TV quoted Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as saying on Saturday.

Clinton rejected the assertion.

"It is disappointing for anyone to make such a claim since it is clearly traced to the al-Qaida remnants and other violent groups who wish to disrupt the progress of Iraq," she said.

Clinton also praised the restraint shown by Iraqis in the aftermath.

"These are tragic and terrible events, but they do not reflect any diversion from the security progress that has been made," she said.

"They are certainly regrettable and horrible in terms of loss of life, but the reaction from the Iraqi people and Iraqi leaders was firm and united in rejecting that violence and refusing to allow it to set Iraqi against Iraqi, which is obviously one of its intended goals."

Violence is at its lowest since the months following the 2003 U.S.-led invasion. But sectarian attacks have exposed gaps in security as Iraq takes over from U.S. forces in protecting the country.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has ordered a military task force to investigate the attacks as well as shortcomings that allowed the assailants to slip through. The government on Saturday also ordered heightened security at major Shiite shrines.

The Pentagon plans to hand over responsibility for most urban security in about three months as part of the administration's goal of a complete exit of forces by the end of 2011.

U.S. officials say they remain committed to a June 30 deadline to move all forces outside major cities, including Baghdad. But the top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. Raymond Odierno, has said American troops could "maintain a presence" in some cities if requested by the Iraqis.

"Frankly, some people are afraid," said one participant in the town hall who said many questioned the ability, competence and neutrality of Iraq's security forces, given the U.S. withdrawal plan.

"There is nothing more important than to have a united Iraq," Clinton replied. "The more united Iraq is, the more you will trust your security services. The security services have to earn your trust but the people have to demand it."

"We will be working closely with the Iraqi government and the Iraqi security forces as we withdraw our combat troops, but we need to be sure that all of you are supporting a strong, nonsectarian security force and we will work to try and help make that happen," she said.

Clinton was met at the airport by the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen and the new U.S. ambassador in Baghdad, Christopher Hill.

By MATTHEW LEE, The Associated Press, April 25, 2009