Source: VOA
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton leaves
Washington Saturday on a trip to Qatar and Saudi Arabia and talks with U.S.
allies on Iran and efforts to restart Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. The Obama
administration has been helping Persian Gulf states upgrade defenses in the face
of Iranian nuclear efforts.
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View of Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant in Southern Iran
Iran says its nuclear program is strictly for peaceful purposes |
Clinton delayed the start of her Gulf trip by one
day to fly to New York to be with her husband, the former President Bill Clinton
who was briefly hospitalized for a heart procedure.
But aides to the Secretary say the fact she is going through with her trip
underscores the importance she attaches to her consultations with Gulf allies.
The Obama administration has in recent weeks been quietly helping several Gulf
states, apprehensive about Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile programs, build
up their defenses with, among other things, U.S. Patriot anti-missile batteries.
The Iranian government has fueled concerns about its nuclear intentions by
spurning big-power offers to help it meet civilian nuclear power needs.
This week - in connection with the 31st anniversary of the country's Islamic
revolution - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejadh boasted of being able to
enrich uranium to 20 per cent or even 80 per cent, a level nearly high enough to
produce a nuclear weapon.
Briefing reporters on the eve of Clinton's departure, State Department Spokesman
P.J. Crowley said Iran could ease regional anxiety by returning to serious talks
on its nuclear program.
"These ongoing statements and ongoing actions are
counterproductive, and they really call into question whether Iranian claims
that their intentions are peaceful are in fact true," said P.J. Crowley.
In Doha, first stop on the trip, Clinton will deliver an address at a forum on
U.S.-Islamic relations and meet with Qatari leaders and other officials
attending the conference including Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
In Saudi Arabia early next week, she meets with King Abdullah, principal sponsor
of the 2003 Arab League peace initiative offering Israel full relations with
Arab states if it made peace with the Palestinians and left occupied land.
Crowley said Clinton will try to generate more active Arab support for ongoing
efforts by U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell to get Israeli-Palestinian
peace talks going again.
"Part of our discussion will be how we push, prod cajole the parties into that
negotiation through which we think we can ultimately arrive at a satisfactory
peace agreement," he said.
The spokesman said U.S. Undersecretary of State for political affairs William
Burns will meet Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on regional peace efforts on a
trip next week that will also take him to Lebanon, Turkey and Azerbaijan.
The Obama administration is preparing to send an ambassador to Syria for the
first time since 2005, when it withdrew its envoy after the assassination of
former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri, in which U.N. investigators
implicated Syrian operatives.
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