Secretary of State Clinton meets Czech FM Karel Schwarzenberg, sees opportunity to talk with Iran on a range of matters

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/02/10/18569375.php

Secretary of State Clinton meets Czech FM Karel Schwarzenberg

by al-masakin
Tuesday Feb 10th, 2009 12:58 PM

Secretary of State Clinton sees opportunity to talk with Iran on a range of matters.

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By Edward Campbell

Missoula, Feb. 10 (Al-Masakin)—U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton met with Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg today in the Treaty Room at the White House.

At a press conference immediately after the meeting the Secretary thanked the Czech Republic “for being at the forefront of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan,” with its deployment of 500 troops to the expedition.

“It’s a great personal pleasure for me to welcome the foreign minister here today,” Secretary Clinton said.

The Foreign Minister replied that it was a great honor to him to be one of the first visits on the Secretary of State’s agenda. Although Madame Secretary noted Feb. 5 that the U.S.-French alliance is “oldest and closest that the United States has in the world,” the Foreign Minister felt nonetheless “the Czech Republic is probably the country that Americans have the most sympathies in all of Europe.”

Mr. Schwarzenberg went on to note that 2009 is the 60th Anniversary of NATO and said “And now, there’s a change, a chance to make a real change, to rejuvenate the relation, to invigorate it, and to start together to tackle the enormous problems we have in the world.”

After these introductory remarks the Secretary of State and the Foreign Minister took questions from the press.

The Secretary declined to comment on the Israeli elections. In reply to the Iranian President’s remarks yesterday to the effect that Iran would hold talks with the United States on the basis of mutual respect, Secretary Clinton replied “there is an opportunity for the Iranian Government to demonstrate a willingness to unclench their fist and to begin a serious and responsible discussion about a range of matters.”

Mrs. Clinton said that the United States persists in its view that Iran should not attempt to acquire a nuclear weapon and said that pursuing that course would be “a very unfortunate course for them to pursue.”

Secretary of State Clinton went on to say that she hoped the would be opportunities in the future for the two sides to develop a better understanding of each other with the aim of working out “a way of talking that would produce positive results for the people of Iran.”

The Secretary, answering questions from reporters, went on to say that the fate of the U.S. missile defense installations in the Czech Republic hinged on the actions of the Iranian government; calling them a threat, and saying that the Czech deployment was intended to deter Iran from pursuing a nuclear weapons program, and asserting furthermore that if Iran ever obtained a nuclear weapon, “Iranian aggression…would certainly be present.”

She went on to assert that if the Iranians continued along that path one of the options for countries like the Czech Republic, other European states, and the United States would be “to defend ourselves.”

In response to other questions from the media the Secretary of State said that she hoped that recent posturing by the DPRK is “a precursor of any action,” and stressed the administration’s commitment to the Six-Party Talks.

In the Secretary’s final remarks she said that the main obstacle to the deployment of a missile defense system in the Czech Republic was technical, but that there are some economic factors hindering that deployment as well, “hope for the best, but plan for the worst,” Secretary Clinton said.

She went on to stress that a European missile defense system would be intended to be a weapon of last resort in the event “we are unable to persuade, dissuade, deter, the Iranians from pursuing nuclear weapons.”
She went on to say that if the administration sees a change in the Iranian behavior, away from what the administration believes to be the pursuit of a nuclear weapon, “we will reconsider where we stand.”

EHC / EHC
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Al-Masakin News Agency
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