Briefing Skipper: Blair, Goldstone Report, Amiri, Mugabe

In which we scour the transcript of the State Department's daily presser so you don't have to. Here are the highlights of today and yesterday's briefings by spokesman Ian Kelly:

• The National Security Council met on Afghanistan today and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also had a meeting with Defense Secretary Robert Gates and National Security Advisor Jim Jones. Earlier today, Clinton met with former British Prime Minister Tony Blair about Mideast peace and Palestinian institution-building.
• The Libyans forced the U.N. Security Council to take up the question of whether to discuss the Goldstone Report today, not allowing it "to go gently into that good night or just fall off the radar screen," as one State Department press corpsman put it. The State Department thinks the U.N. Human Rights Council is the best venue to discuss the report, if they should discuss it, which they shouldn't, Kelly said. "We believe that it was in the interest of all concerned, of all who share this common goal of relaunching these negotiations, to delay discussion of this report."
• Still no decision on whether to accept the North Korean offer for bilateral talks that could lead to a resumption of the Six-Party Talks. There was a readout from the Chinese of their meeting with Kim Jong Il, but that wasn't enough for the administration to come to a decision.
• Iran is accusing the U.S. of involvement in the disappearance of researcher Shahram Amiri, but the State Department has never heard of him. "The case is not familiar to us. The name is not familiar to us," said Kelly, not speaking on behalf of any other U.S. agencies that might be involved.
• The State Department is not quite ready to jump at Robert Mugabe's offer to start fresh with countries around the world. "So what we would like to see is some real and concrete action," Kelly said.
• Clinton will be in Moscow Oct. 13 and 14 and is also considering a visit to "another city in Russia," but not St. Petersburg.