Iran Faces Choice On Co-Operation: Clinton

Iran Faces Choice On Co-Operation: Clinton

(NSI News Source Info) WASHINGTON - February 2, 2009: President Barack Obama’s intent to change the direction of US foreign policy gives Iran a “clear opportunity” to engage more productively on its nuclear program and other issues, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Tuesday. In her first remarks to reporters at the State Department, Clinton said Obama’s first days in office have made it clear that a more open Iranian approach to the international community could benefit Iran. She said this was reflected in statements Obama made in an interview Monday with an Arab TV network.

“There is a clear opportunity for the Iranians, as the president expressed in his interview, to demonstrate some willingness to engage meaningfully with the international community,” she said. “Whether or not that hand becomes less clenched is really up to them.”Obama told the Al-Arabiya news channel that he wanted to communicate to Muslims that “the Americans are not your enemy.” He condemned Iran’s threats to destroy Israel and its pursuit of nuclear weapons, but said “it is important for us to be willing to talk to Iran, to express very clearly where our differences are, but where there are potential avenues for progress.”

Clinton, who criticized Obama for his willingness to speak directly with leaders of rogue nations like Iran during their contest for the Democratic presidential nomination, told reporters that the administration is undertaking a wide-ranging and comprehensive survey of US policy options toward Iran. “There is just a lot that we are considering that I’m not prepared to discuss,” she added. Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Mehdi Safari, speaking in Athens, Greece, said Tuesday that it was too early to say whether relations with the United States would improve with Obama as president.“We will wait and see (if there is) actual change or just slogans,” he said.

Clinton’s comments came one day after US ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice said the Obama administration will engage in “direct diplomacy” with Iran. Not since before the 1979 Iranian revolution are US officials believed to have conducted wide-ranging direct diplomacy with Iranian officials. Rice said Iran must meet UN Security Council demands to suspend uranium enrichment before any talks on its nuclear program.

More broadly, Clinton said her initial round of telephone calls with world leaders has yielded positive signs.

“There’s a great exhalation of breath going on around the world as people express their appreciation for the new direction that’s being set and the team that’s (been) put together by the president,” said the former New York senator and first lady.

“In areas of the world that have felt either overlooked or not receiving appropriate attention to the problems they are experiencing, there’s a welcoming of the engagement that we are promising,” she said. “It’s not any kind of repudiation or indictment of the past eight years so much as an excitement and an acceptance of how we are going to be doing business.”

She dismissed suggestions that Obama’s foreign policy team will find it difficult to work together. She said all are determined to find the best way to execute the president’s foreign policy objectives. “We have a lot of damage to repair,” she said, referring to US foreign relations as they stood when President George W. Bush left office Jan 20.Clinton said she spoke by telephone Tuesday with top Iraqi officials to make clear that there will be continuity in US policy. She said her call was intended to “reinforce our commitment to a democratic and sovereign Iraq and the importance of their provincial elections.” Iraqis are scheduled to vote on Saturday in a set of elections that US and Iraqi officials hope will further solidify progress toward national political reconciliation.

Al-Qaeda

US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Tuesday the United States will “go after Al-Qaeda wherever Al-Qaeda is,” and said Washington’s position has been relayed to Pakistan.

“Both President (George W.) Bush and President (Barack) Obama have made clear we will go after Al-Qaeda whereever Al-Qaeda is, and we will continue to pursue that,” he told lawmakers.

Asked whether that decision has been transmitted to the government of Pakistan, Gates said “Yes, sir.”

As the Pentagon prepares for a major buildup of US troops in Afghanistan, Robert Gates warned Tuesday that the United States cannot become bogged down in the unrealistic goal of turning the devastated country into an economically prosperous nation.

Instead, the US must limit its focus to ensuring terrorists do not regain control of the region and use it to coordinate attacks, Gates said.

“If we set ourselves the objective of creating some sort of Central Asian Valhalla over there,” Gates said, referring to the mythic haven of purity, “we will lose because nobody in the world has that kind of time, patience or money to be honest.”

Gates testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee as President Barack Obama considers his options for drawing down US operations in Iraq and doubling the force size in Afghanistan. Obama planned to meet Wednesday with the service chiefs.

Gates told lawmakers that the Pentagon could send two more brigades to Afghanistan by late spring and a third by midsummer in an effort to try to salvage a country besieged by corruption and increasing violence.

More troops could be sent after that but that would hinge on the Defense Department’s ability to build a larger infrastructure, he added. The secretary cautioned against sending too many troops, because he said it could send the wrong message and Afghan citizens must see their own security forces take control.

When asked by Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Republican and frequent visitor to the region, whether he expects casualties to rise with the uptick in military operations, Gates responded that it was “likely.”

“This is going to be tough, it’s going to be difficult and in many ways more difficult than Iraq. Do you agree with that?” Graham asked Gates.

“Yes,” Gates responded.Gates said the Pentagon is preparing for Obama various scenarios for winding down the war in Iraq, including a plan that would cease US involvement in combat within 16 months. Gates said military planners are looking at later dates as well and are prepared to brief Obama on all his options and the their associated risks. “I believe the president will have had every opportunity to hear quite directly from his commanders about what they can accomplish and what the attendant risks are under different options,” Gates said.Gates said he does not expect the military buildup in Afghanistan to put an additional strain on troops. By the end of September, soldiers deployed for 12 months should be allowed 15 months at home. In the 2010 budget year, that ratio will stretch further, giving troops two years at home for every one year deployed. By 2011, they should see 30 months at home, he said.

Weapons

Robert Gates vowed to reform the way the Pentagon buys weapons and said budget pressures resulting from two wars and the economic crisis would force tough choices in coming years.

“We will not be able to ‘do everything, buy everything’ ... I believe now is the time to take action,” Gates said in testimony prepared for the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Gates singled out procurement as one of the biggest challenges facing the Pentagon, and said finding a solution would require the support of industry and Congress.

“I believe that the FY 2010 budget must make hard choices. Any necessary changes should avoid across-the-board adjustments, which inefficiently extend all programs,” he said.

He said long-standing systemic problems had resulted in “the situation we face today, where a small set of expensive weapons programs has had repeated — and unacceptable — problems with requirements, schedule, cost and performance.”

Gates said the department had already begun to purchase weapons at more efficient rates, and he would work to buy larger quantities of systems that represent the ‘75 percent solution’ instead of waiting for a nearly perfect system.

The Pentagon also needed to ensure that services did not continue to add requirements once a weapons program began, and write contracts that gave incentives for good work.

“The department should seek increased competition, use of prototypes and ensure technology maturity so that our programs are ready for the next phases of development,” Gates said.

Threat

Gates meanwhile, assured lawmakers that the United States is ready to handle any Chinese military threat, even as Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called for increased US engagement with Beijing. Gates, speaking at a Senate hearing, said that US forces “have the capability in place to be able to deal with any foreseeable Chinese threat for some time to come.”

Clinton, meanwhile, told reporters at the State Department that the Bush administration’s dialogue with China “turned into an economic dialogue,” referring to former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson’s Strategic Economic Dialogue, high-level discussions that have been held twice a year starting in late 2006.

“We need a comprehensive dialogue with China,” Clinton said. Economic engagement, she added, is “a very important aspect of our relationship with China, but it’s not the only aspect our relationship.”

The Obama administration is “going to be working together in the government across our agencies to design a more comprehensive approach that will be more in keeping with the important role that China is playing and will be playing,” Clinton said.