Clinton and Peres after their meeting in the President's Residence in Jerusalem on Tuesday. Photo: Mark Neyman/GPO
Posted on 03/03/2009 5:14:55 AM PST by SJackson
Clinton: US will do all it can to prevent nuclear Iran
US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Tuesday met with Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, afterward saying that the two had had a "broad discussion" about iran and that that there had been common understanding about the threat emanating from Teheran.
Clinton and Peres after their meeting in the President's Residence in Jerusalem on Tuesday. Photo: Mark Neyman/GPO
Clinton maintained that the US would do "everything it could" to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. That is the goal "of any tactic we employ," she said.
"When we talk about engagement with Iran, our goal remains the same, to dissuade and prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons and continuing to fund terrorism," Clinton added.
The top US diplomat also announced that her country would be sending two officials to Syria to explore "bilateral issues."
RELATED No 'fireworks' expected at first Netanyahu-Clinton meeting "We have no way to predict what the future of our relations might be, but we want to engage in a discussion" she said in relation to the talks with Syria. She said that one of the officials was from the State Department and the other from the White House.
The US Embassy in Damascus named one of the envoys as Jeffrey Feltman, the State Department's top diplomat for the Middle East.
Earlier,Clinton emphasized the necessity of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Talking with the press after a meeting with President Shimon Peres - also attended by Middle East envoy George Mitchell - at the President's Residence in Jerusalem, Clinton said: "During the [Sharm el-Sheik Gaza aid] conference I emphasized President [Barack] Obama's and my commitment to working to achieve a two-state solution to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, and our support for the Palestinian Authority of President [Mahmoud] Abbas and Prime Minister [Salaam] Fayad."
Clinton also congratulated Israel on the recent elections, and stressed that the Obama administration would cooperate with the new Israeli government.
"We will work with the government of Israel that represents the democratic will of Israel," she said.
The secretary of state noted the special nature of US-Israel ties. "Our relationship is more than of shared interest," but also stemmed from common values, she said.
Clinton mentioned that at the Sharm el-Sheik Gaza aid conference on Monday she reiterated the necessity for the "cynical" rocket attacks on Israel to cease. "No nation can stand idly by" assaults on its citizens, she said.
Clinton also visited the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial. Writing in the guest book, she described the memorial as a testament to "the triumph of the Jewish people over murder and destruction and a reminder to all people that the lessons of the Holocaust must never be forgotten. God bless Israel and its future."
Throughout the day, Clinton is set to meet with Prime Minister-designate Binyamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Ehud Barak.
============================
No 'fireworks' expected at first Netanyahu-Clinton meeting
Some 24 hours after reaffirming in Egypt Washington's commitment to a two-state solution, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is scheduled to meet on Tuesday with Prime Minister-designate Binyamin Netanyahu, who has talked about the Palestinians governing themselves but has consistently stopped short of mentioning a full-blown Palestinian state.
Israeli government officials said that both Clinton and Netanyahu would likely be in "listening mode," wanting to hear the positions of the other side.
"Remember, this is their first meeting," one official said, adding that he did not expect any "fireworks" around either the two-state issue or construction in the settlements.
Zalman Shoval, one of Netanyahu's top foreign policy advisers, said he expected that Clinton - like US special envoy George Mitchell, who met with Netanyahu on Thursday - would wait to discuss specifics until a new government was set up. He said Clinton would probably speak along lines similar to Mitchell's, and not to bring up "unexpected subjects."
Mitchell, who will be accompanying Clinton, did not discuss the settlements with Netanyahu during their meeting.
The Clinton-Netanyahu meeting is scheduled to last an hour and is the most important of the new US secretary of state's meetings with Israeli leaders on Wednesday. She will meet with President Shimon Peres, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Defense Minister Ehud Barak.
While those meetings would likely focus on past events, one Israeli diplomatic official said, the meeting with Netanyahu would deal with what will happen in the future.
Netanyahu is expected to tell Clinton that he favors an approach whereby, rather than declaring up front that there has to be a Palestinian state and then seeing how it would come about, he would build up the elements that have to be in any self-governing entity and then see what would come out of that.
Clinton, however, made it abundantly clear in the speech she gave at the Gaza reconstruction conference in Sharm e-Sheikh that Washington still believed in the two-state formula, and that Middle East leaders could count on President Barack Obama to take a more active approach than did his predecessor, George W. Bush.
"It is time to look ahead," she said, with an eye to the human aspects of what years of regional conflict have meant for the Palestinians and others.
"The United States is committed to a comprehensive peace between Israel and its Arab neighbors, and we will pursue it on many fronts," she said.
"We cannot afford more setbacks or delays - or regrets about what might have been, had different decisions been made," she added, in an apparent reference to the failure of previous peace initiatives, including those pushed vigorously by her husband Bill Clinton's administration.
Associates of Netanyahu and Israel Beiteinu chairman Avigdor Lieberman said they had no problem with Clinton mentioning several times in her speech that she was in favor of the creation of a Palestinian state.
One Likud MK who opposes such a state responded bluntly, "So what? She also said she would be president about a thousand times, and did that happen?"
Israeli officials said that despite media speculation on inevitable friction between an Obama and a Netanyahu administration, "everybody here is a grownup; we know their positions, and they know ours. We are friends and allies, and it is not realistic to think we are going to get into a boxing match over these issues."
If Netanyahu's previous meeting with Mitchell is any indication of what to expect in the Clinton parley, the tone of the meeting is likely to be one of "let's be pragmatic and figure out how we can move things forward," according to the official.
The impression Mitchell left on his Israeli interlocutors was that the US was still very much in the policy-review stage, talking and listening to everyone in the region and looking in a "very sober" and realistic manner at the situation.
Since Clinton will be coming from the Gaza reconstruction conference in Sharm e-Sheikh, where the US pledged some $900 million to the Palestinians, her talks in Jerusalem are expected to focus on how to provide the aid without building up Hamas in the process.
Likewise, Iran is also likely to be a focus of the talks, with the Israeli officials expected to express Israel's position that the US should set a time frame for its talks with Iran so Teheran does not drag the negotiations on indefinitely while continuing to develop its nuclear program.
Clinton, who arrived in the capital on Monday evening, will also visit Yad Vashem and meet with a women's NGO called Sviva Tomechet, which provides support and funds for female entrepreneurs. Among those she will meet are an Ethiopian and a Russian immigrant who received help from the organization and set up businesses on their own.
Diplomatic officials said this type of meeting represented a vastly different style than that of her predecessor, Condoleezza Rice, who generally used to come to Israel, hold diplomatic meetings and leave, without these types of "media events."
Clinton will hold a similar kind of meeting with Palestinian students learning English in a US-funded program in Ramallah, when she goes there on Wednesday. She will meet with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salaam Fayad. She is scheduled to leave the region on Wednesday afternoon.
I wouldn’t bet the farm,
But I think BiBi can take Mrs. Clinton in even a dirty fight.
If you'd like to be on or off, please FR mail me.
----------------------------
Why anyone would expect "fireworks" is beyond me.
The Iranians are probably just months from having a nuclear weapon so all the diplomacy, sucking up to the Russians and kowtowing in the UN have and will do nothing to stop them. Obama better get out his bowler hat, umbrella and white flag for his trip to Iran to make “peace in our time”.
What channel is that Pay-per-view on?
It’s all just posturing. In private Israel is more reluctant to give its enemies a closer means to further its quick destruction.
That’s what we call a political reality. And it’s not going to change. Everyone is being nice in front of the cameras. For now.
It won’t last if the mullahs in Tehran continue their nuke plans apace. There’s trouble on the horizon. Big trouble.
I don't think Commander Zero will push the Button.
Moscow and it’s Moolahs are laughing all the way to the reactor.
I think her meeting with Bibi well go off without any snags. She’s saying all the right things. Now, if Obama will back her up, maybe they can get a 7 year peace deal. Then the antichrist (Obama) can break that deal in 3 1/2 years. which will lead to the battle of Armageddon, which will bring the real Messiah who will put the antichrist (Obama) under lock and key for 1000 years. I had one heck of a dream last night. LOL The good news is that we won. :o)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.