Briefing Skipper: Mexico, Karzai, Syria, Yemen, Koran burning

Posted By Josh Rogin Tuesday, February 21, 2012 - 5:40 PM Share

In which we scour the transcript of the State Department's daily presser so you don't have to. These are the highlights of Monday's briefing by spokeswoman Victoria Nuland:

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was in Los Cabos, Mexico, over the weekend to attend the G20 foreign ministers meeting. "We had some fun at the G-20 ministerial -- did a little minister- watching, did a little whale-watching," Nuland said. The British press picked up on the fact that Clinton was the only minister who didn't wear white for the official photo. No word if her green outfit had an environmental significance.
The State Department is "gratified" that Afghan President Hamid Karzai is now openly talking about direct interactions with the Taliban in pursuit of Afghan peace. "Our goal is to work ourselves out of a job, if that makes sense, because when we get to the point where it's Afghans and Afghans talking to each other, then we'll really have a true reconciliation process," Nuland said.
Nuland said that State views favorable the International Committee for the Red Cross's proposal to negotiate a humanitarian ceasefire in Syria but she said that steps to increase pressure on the Syrian regime would continue in anticipation of Friday's "Friends of Syria" meeting in Tunis. "You know where we've been, that we think that the violence needs to stop completely. So if a pause is the best we can do, then obviously we want to be able to get humanitarian aid and we want international organizations to be able to get humanitarian aid to those who are suffering from Assad's onslaught," said Nuland. The administration is still against arming the Syrian opposition.
Expectations are low for the visit of the IAEA officials in Tehran. "We will await the report of that visit. But as you know from the public statements that they made, they had a relatively ambitious agenda which was designed to give the Iranians the opportunity to demonstrate that their program is for peaceful purposes," Nuland said. Still no response to Iran's letter offering new talks." I think our hope is to be able to have a little bit more to say by the end of the week," she said.
Nuland had a very positive reaction of the presidential election in Yemen, even though there was only one candidate. "The United States congratulates the Yemeni people on carrying out this successful presidential election and taking the next step in their democratic transition. Our understanding is that turnout was very high -- and particularly high among women; among young people, voters under 30. And it just shows quite a bit of enthusiasm and ownership by the Yemeni people for this transition going forward," she said. President Ali Abdullah Saleh is still in California and is still immune from prosecution because he is president, for now.
The State Department has heard from the Pakistani ambassador and from the government in Islamabad about Rep. Dana Rohrabacher's Baluchistan resolution, but there's nothing the administration can do to stop lawmakers from introducing bills about things. "Members of Congress introduce legislation on many foreign affairs topics, but they don't in any way imply U.S. government endorsement of those positions," Nuland said. "With regard to Baluchistan itself, we encourage all the parties in Baluchistan to work out their differences peaceably and through a political process. So we would like to again make clear that we respect Pakistani sovereignty in this regard."
The U.S. is still going to push hard for an American to be head of the World Bank when Robert Zoellick steps down, despite some countries' desire for a change in the tradition of having an American World Bank President. "One of the things that has happened at the World Bank over recent time, as well as at the IMF, is that the leadership structure has been more open to more countries. That said, with regard to the senior jobs at the World Bank, we fully expect that we will have an extremely strong American candidate," Nuland said.
Nuland condemned the "horrific incident" in Afghanistan whereby a truckload of Korans was apparently burned at the Bagram military base. "I think the concern is that some around the world will think that this represents an affirmative statement by the United States. And it does not represent our values or our view of how the Koran ought to be treated," she said.

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MARTY MARTEL

10:51 AM ET

February 22, 2012

Pakistan is the impediment

While US would like Afghans talking to Afghans, Pakistan will spoil America’s game plan just as it has until now.

US has to be deceiving itself if it does not see that Pakistan is responsible for this continuing Afghan tragedy.

The seeds of the ‘current Afghan tragedy’ were sowed in Washington when Bush administration decided to allow Musharraf to spirit away by airlift hundreds, if not thousands, of Taliban operatives cornered by the advancing Northern Alliance in Kunduz in November, 2001. Pakistan relocated those Taliban cadres including Mullah Mohammed Omar in Quetta, the provincial capital of Baluchistan (now relocated to Karachi by Pakistani ISI to protect them from possible US drone attacks) and Haqqani network (HQN) in North Waziristan from where Mullah Omar’s QST and Haqqani’s HQN have been planning raids in Afghanistan ever since.

It is this deliberate policy of Bush administration to ignore Pakistani State’s terrorist connections that has saddled Obama with an endless Afghan war. Obama wants nothing more than to end it even if he has to sacrifice Afghanistan in the process.

Pakistan will not allow a peace process that sidelines it. Karzai will not find willing Taliban to negotiate with and even if he does, that peace will be illusive and short-lived. Witness all the tension between Karzai and Pakistani government at recently concluded Islamabad tripartite summit between Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan.

Pakistan-imposed Taliban rule is returning to Afghanistan. It will be all over 1996 again.

MAXIMB

8:24 PM ET

March 22, 2012

Yes. They always do this

Yes. They always do this but, his weak, liberal stance gives them even more opportunity to flex their ever growing muscle. I just hope we do not wait until it is too late for us, or the entire world..

"Is rio orange war always forfait sosh inevitable ?"
MaximB