WASHINGTON: Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said on Sunday she would not reveal any specifics of a possible defense umbrella to protect Mideast allies against Iran’s nuclear program while insisting Washington remained open to dialogue with Tehran.
Clinton also implicitly urged Israel to set aside any plans it might have for a pre-emptive strike on Iranian nuclear sites and to give US policy time to work.
On North Korean belligerence, Clinton said the regime there was isolated as never before and that China had been enormously helpful in pressuring Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear program.
The hard-line regime in North Korea has abandoned promises to dismantle its nuclear program and recently conducted a number of missile tests and an underground nuclear explosion in defiance of UN resolutions and international agreements.
As President Barack Obama struggles with a deep economic recession at home and tries to wind down the war in Iraq while stepping up the offensive against Taleban forces in Afghanistan. nuclear programs in both Iran and North Korea remain major foreign policy challenges.
Iran says it is merely trying to develop nuclear reactors for domestic power generation.
While promising to isolate Tehran with painful sanctions if it does not moderate its nuclear ambitions, Obama continues to seek a dialogue through which Iran might gain better ties with the United States and other measures that could help Tehran’s struggling economy.
Clinton said she saw no conflict of interest in attempts to negotiate with the Iranian regime despite turmoil inside the country that has seen a major and violent crackdown on supporters of opposition candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi.
Clinton also said that Iran must understand by now that the United States will never let it develop nuclear weapons.
There are concerns that Israel, seen as a primary target of an Iranian weapons program, might launch a first strike to destroy Tehran’s nuclear sites before the regime is able to build a bomb.
Clinton said that Washington hopes the Jewish state understands American attempts to talk to Iran is a better approach.
The secretary of state set off a major debate last week when she said in a television interview in Thailand: “We want Iran to calculate what I think is a fair assessment: that if the United States extends a defense umbrella over the region ... it is unlikely that Iran will be any stronger or safer because they won’t be able to intimidate and dominate as they apparently believe they can once they have a nuclear weapon.”
She subsequently backpedaled, especially in the face of Israeli concerns that she was acknowledging the inevitability of Iran gaining a nuclear arsenal.
