Briefing Skipper: Hillary in Pakistan, the UN & Cuba, Honduras, Iran sanctions

Posted By Josh Rogin Wednesday, October 28, 2009 - 10:06 PM Share

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's briefing by Department Spokesman Ian Kelly:

In Islamabad today, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had lunch with Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, met with Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, attended a program designed to help Pakistan's poorest women and their families, and attended a dinner hosted by President Asif Ali Zardari at the presidential residence. She pledged $55 million for humanitarian relief in Waziristan, $85 million for poor women there, and $103.5 million for the Pakistani government's law enforcement programs.
Kelly also gave a statement on the suicide bombing that greeted Clinton in Islamabad upon her arrival. "These attacks show the lengths extremist elements are willing to go, as they attempt to force their agenda onto a people who only wish to go about their daily lives in peace," he said. No American casualties in the attacks.
But one American was among the six UN staffers killed in an attack this morning on a UN mission guesthouse in Kabul. "This is all part of a -- of an overall campaign to intimidate the Afghan people, to try and discourage them from exercising their democratic rights," Kelly said, "It's not going to work."
No real comment (despite determined repeated asking) on the New York Times report stating Afghan President Hamid Karzai's brother is a CIA-supported drug trafficker. "We've made that clear to the government of Afghanistan, that we are very concerned about corruption and... once the elections are completed and we have a post- election administration in place, we're going to discuss these issues with them," said Kelly.
Kelly defended the embargo against Cuba, which was condemned in a vote today by the UN General Assembly. "Sanctions on Cuba are designed to permit humanitarian items to reach the Cuban people, while denying the Cuban government resources that it could use to repress its citizens," Kelly read from a sheet of paper. Only Israel and the Pacific island nation of Palau voted with the U.S.
The administration's delegation to Honduras arrived today and will meet with both sides of the ongoing dispute today and tomorrow, Kelly said. The delegation is led by Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs Tom Shannon, principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Craig Kelly, and National Security Council Senior Director for Western Hemisphere Affairs Dan Restrepo.
The State Department is still waiting for a response from Iran to the IAEA proposal on transferring low enriched uranium. Meanwhile, a U.S. Congressional committee approved a new sanctions bill, but that isn't what the administration is focused on. "These kinds of methods of pressure of course are a lot more effective if they're done in a multilateral fashion," Kelly said, neither endorsing nor rejecting the bill on its merits.

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AHR

11:52 PM ET

October 29, 2009

US Secretary of State Hillary

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s charm offensive rolled into a wall of suspicion at one of Pakistan’s top universities on Thursday as students grilled her on whether America was truly ready to be a steadfast partner in a time of crisis.

http://ahraza.wordpress.com/2009/10/29/university-students-in-lahore-confront-hillary/