DOHA, Qatar - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is kicking off a visit to two key US allies in the Persian Gulf.

Clinton arrived Sunday in Qatar, where she is holding talks with top government leaders and speaking at an international conference called the US-Islamic World Forum.

President Barack Obama addressed the forum by video on Saturday, announcing that he is appointing a special envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Conference.

Clinton also is scheduled to visit Saudi Arabia to meet with King Abdullah and to hold a town hall-style meeting with students at a Saudi women's college.

In both countries Clinton plans to raise the issue of how to contain Iran's nuclear program, which is of great worry among the Gulf Arab states.

WASHINGTON - With tensions over Iran's nuclear ambitions hitting new levels, the United States is mounting a diplomatic full-court press in the Middle East, sending four top diplomats, including Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, to confer with Arab and Israeli leaders.

The envoys' visits to Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Qatar were planned separately in recent weeks, but they now have a common purpose, administration officials said: to reassure Iran's neighbors that the United States will stand firm against Tehran, and to enlist other countries in a global effort to put pressure on the Iranian authorities.

Mrs. Clinton will play a central part in the effort, leaving Saturday for Qatar and Saudi Arabia, where she will meet with the Saudi leader, King Abdullah. Officials said she was expected to press the Saudis to reassure China that Saudi Arabia would offset any disruption in oil shipments that could occur if Beijing were to back new United Nations sanctions against Iran.

China, which has major investments in Iran's oil and gas industry, has been the main holdout in the American-led effort to impose tougher sanctions against Iran through the United Nations Security Council.

In a sign of the importance of the trip, Mrs. Clinton stuck to her plans even after her husband, former President Bill Clinton, entered the hospital for a heart procedure on Thursday, though she delayed her departure by a day.

"If you're talking about the Middle East writ large," said the State Department spokesman, Philip J. Crowley, "Iran has an influence in each compartment. Part of it is the nuclear issue, part of it is Iran's support for extremist groups, part of it is about how Iran is going to relate to the rest of the neighborhood."

The American officials, Mr. Crowley noted, will also discuss other issues, like the Arab-Israeli peace process, building Palestinian institutions on the West Bank, and the administration's long-term effort to reach out to Syria. But in these issues too, Iran casts a long shadow.

Both of Mrs. Clinton's lieutenants, James B. Steinberg and Jacob J. Lew, are headed to the region. Mr. Lew will leave this weekend for Egypt, Israel and Jordan, while Mr. Steinberg travels to Israel the week of Feb. 21 to take part in discussions with Israel that are likely to be dominated by Iran.

The State Department's under secretary for political affairs, William Burns, has perhaps the most challenging itinerary, traveling to Syria, one of Iran's staunchest allies in the region, and to Lebanon, which holds a seat on the Security Council and is likely to resist sanctions against Iran.

Mr. Burns, administration officials said, will also discuss plans to return an American ambassador to Syria after a hiatus of five years. The Bush administration withdrew its envoy in 2005 to protest the assassination of the former prime minister of Lebanon, Rafik Hariri. Washington has long suspected Syria of being involved in the attack, a charge it denies.

By reaching out to Syria, analysts said, the United States may loosen the links between Damascus and Tehran, though administration officials caution that progress in this area is likely to be slow.

"I don't think you're going to see a sudden flip of the switch, where they go from Iran's orbit to our orbit," said a State Department official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the delicacy of the issue. "But the Syrians do need to see we envision a Middle East in which they're playing a constructive role."

In his visit to Israel, Mr. Steinberg will take part in a strategic dialogue intended to touch on counterterrorism and regional security issues. Iran, which Israel regards as an existential threat, is likely to be at the top of the agenda, American officials said.

Iran's announcement that it had begun enriching uranium to 20 percent purity brought expressions of alarm from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, who said this week that the United Nations must impose "crippling sanctions, and these sanctions must be applied right now."

Administration officials said they were pleased that, as one official put it, "the Iranians will see so many American officials floating around the region at the same time. They'll definitely take notice."

Still, some analysts said, the cavalcade of diplomats will not ultimately make a difference if the United States fails to develop a credible plan for confronting Iran or muster international support for it.

"The attitude in the Middle East countries is going to be, 'Can we count on the United States?' " said Patrick Clawson, the deputy director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. "If the Obama administration wants to persuade people it can deter Iran, it's going to require continuing high-level attention. It's going to require cold war-level diplomacy."

By Mark Landler, The New York Times, February 12, 2010

When Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton travels to the Persian Gulf Saturday, the unspoken focus of the trip will be Iran.

In announcing Secretary Clinton's trip, the State Department said only that she would speak Feb. 14 at the US-Islamic World Forum, hosted by the Qatari government and the Brookings Institution's Saban Center. Also, she will meet with Qatar's emir and foreign minister. And in Saudi Arabia on Feb. 15-16, she will meet with King Abdullah bin Abdul al-Saud and Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal.

But Iran and its muscle flexing across the Gulf region will be at the heart of the visit, Middle East experts say - as will US attempts to increase pressure on the Iranian regime over its continuing pursuit of nuclear capabilities.

"Iran will very much be front and center in Secretary Clinton's visit," says James Phillips, a specialist in Middle Eastern affairs at the Heritage Foundation in Washington. "That's especially true because the Gulf countries, including those she's visiting, are even more nervous than the US about the rise of Iran and its growing power."

Clinton's trip comes as the United States steps up its efforts to pressure Iran to curtail its nuclear ambitions and to contain Iran's expanding military power in the region.

The US is pursuing a new United Nations Security Council resolution of economic sanctions against Iran, with Defense Secretary Robert Gates saying earlier this week that the US hopes to see approval of the resolution "within weeks." At the same time, the Obama administration is accelerating a reinforcement of missile defenses in the Persian Gulf, which was initiated under President Bush.

Last month Gen. David Petraeus, commander of the US Central Command, spoke publicly of the deployment of American antimissile batteries, "two in each of four countries." Although General Petraeus did not provide names, Qatar is known to be one of the countries to have accepted the missiles. Petraeus did say that the US is keeping Aegis cruisers, equipped with antimissile systems capable of intercepting medium-range missiles, on permanent patrol in the Persian Gulf.

Clinton is likely to do some indirect lobbying for the new Security Council resolution through her Arab interlocutors. Of the five Security Council countries with veto power over Council actions, only China remains publicly opposed to passing a new set of sanctions at this time.

When she met with her Chinese counterpart recently, Clinton emphasized what she called the short-term perspective of China's current position, saying that China's reluctance to move forward on sanctions was related to China's close commercial relations with Iran. She called on China to think more in terms of its long-term interests in a stable Middle East.

Following up on that argument, Clinton will be looking to the Arabs to "act as a counterweight [to Iran] on China and help unlock its Security Council vote," Mr. Phillips says.

"The US is hoping to use these discussions with the Arabs as a way to encourage China to look at its long-term economic interests," Phillips adds. "The Arabs could let the Chinese know that it will hurt them economically with the Arab countries in the long run if China clings to this pro-Iran position."

Clinton's Gulf trip was announced even as the US Treasury Department took additional action against Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps under existing US sanctions. As of Wednesday, the Treasury said, it was designating one IRGC general and four companies as proliferators of weapons of mass destruction.

The Treasury named Iranian Gen. Rostam Qasemi, commander of Khatam al-Anbiya Construction Headquarters, the IRGC's engineering arm, in Wednesday's designation.

"Today's action exposing Khatam al-Anbiya subsidiaries will help firms worldwide avoid business that ultimately benefits the IRGC and its dangerous activities," Stuart Levey, undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, said in a statement Wednesday.

The Gulf countries already know firsthand about Iran's "dangerous activities," Phillips of Heritage says, so Clinton shouldn't have to do a hard sell to get the Arabs on board in efforts to curtail Iran.

"Iran already pursues a long list of destabilizing activities in the region," Phillips says, listing Iran's support for extremist groups like Hezbollah, cases of it fomenting unrest among Shiite Muslim minorities in majority Sunni Muslim countries, and "strong suspicions" that Iran masterminded a coup attempt in Bahrain.

"If Iran ends up with a nuclear weapon, it will feel all the more freedom to act with impunity in the region, and things could get all the more dangerous in the Gulf," Phillips says. "The Arabs already know that, but the US is hoping they can help convince China to get on board in deterring Iran."

WASHINGTON - The U.S.-based lawyer for one of 10 American Baptists charged with child kidnapping in Haiti appealed Tuesday for Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to personally intervene in the case.

Attorneys for detainee Jim Allen said in a letter to Clinton that they are concerned their client may not have adequate legal representation and has not been able to speak with his wife, Lisa, since being arrested in the aftermath of a devastating earthquake.

They said the case was complicated by the chaotic situation in Haiti and asked Clinton to speak directly to Haitian authorities about letting the families of the detainees talk with them to ensure their well-being.

"Without questioning the the integrity of the individuals involved in the Haitian judidicial system, we think it is clear that the unprecedented situation that exists in Haiti now requires a response beyond what would be expected in the ordinary course," lawyers Reginald Brown and Jennifer O'Connor said in the letter.

"We respectfully ask that you make a personal request to the Haitian authorities to allow Lisa and her lawyers to speak directly to Jim without delay," they wrote. "Similar access should also be provided to the families of the other Americans being held in Haiti."

The State Department said Tuesday that the detainees - who insist they are innocent and were on a humanitarian mission - had been receiving consular visits from U.S. diplomats and that it would be unusual for Clinton or any secretary of state to get personally involved.

"We are doing exactly what we would do with detained Americans anywhere in the world," spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters. He added that access to the detainees should be easily arranged by the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince and Haitian officials.

"As to intervening directly in the case, we are very respectful of the Haitian government and Haitian law," he said. "It would be highly unusual for the secretary of state to intervene in the judicial process of another country."

However, Crowley said U.S. officials had been in touch with Haitian authorities about what might happen if Haitian courts were unable to handle the case.

"We have talked to Haitian officials in general terms about their ability to conduct this procedure," he said. If they want to explore alternative avenues with us, we will be happy to do so." Crowley would not elaborate.