secretary of state hillary rodham clinton remarks
on iran Talks and The IAEA Report on Iran in interview with Josh Rogin of the Cable
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
December 3, 2010
Excerpts
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SECRETARY CLINTON: Okay. I’ll be speaking tonight and I want, very directly, to let Iran understand that we are serious about this engagement. We were serious from the beginning of the Obama Administration. The door remains open. And we hope that the negotiations in Geneva bear some results.
But at the same time, we’re realists, and we know that they’re probably coming back to the table because sanctions are working. And I don’t think they believed that we could ever put together the international coalition we did for sanctions. And from all that we hear from people in this region and beyond, they’re worried about the impact. And so they’re returning to Geneva and we hope that they’re returning, willing to negotiate.
QUESTION: Excellent. So we had a dual track, engagement and pressure. We focused on engagement for about a year, then we were focused on pressure, now we’re going back to engagement. How long are we going to focus on engagement again before we start focusing again on pressure? Is it another year? Is that the thinking or what?
SECRETARY CLINTON: I don’t think we can – I don’t think we would put timetables on it. I think this is more of a day-by-day assessment. We know where we’re headed, and that is to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. We know we have the vast majority of the world with us on that.
QUESTION: Sure.
SECRETARY CLINTON: But I think we’ll have to take stock of where we are after Geneva. We’ll have to see how the Iranians respond on other things we’ve engaged with them on, like the two hikers that are still in prison and Mr. Levinson, who --
QUESTION: Sure.
SECRETARY CLINTON: -- also is in Iran, in our opinion. So let’s see where it goes.
QUESTION: Okay. So how do we know if it’s progressing or not? What is the metric? What – how do --
SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, for example, the IAEA has concluded that Iran’s nuclear program has had some difficulties. So I think that’s given us a little bit of a breathing space. I mean, if they’re having difficulties, maybe they’ll be more responsible. We won’t know until we test it. So it’s – in negotiation, we know where our goal is, and we had a very clear set of milestones which we reached. Now, we’ve always wanted to get them back to see whether there was any potential there. And as we go along, we’re going to keep the goal in sight, keep the international coalition together, keep the pressure on Iran. The pressure is not lifting because they’re coming to the table in Geneva. And then we’ll take it step by step.
QUESTION: Understood. And you’re not going to see Foreign Minister Mottaki. He’s going to be here two days later, so --
SECRETARY CLINTON: I think he’s here tonight.
QUESTION: He’s here tonight. So you’re going to see him or you’re not going to see him?
SECRETARY CLINTON: If he comes to dinner, I’ll probably see him.
QUESTION: So what do you – what’s your message to him?
SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, he doesn’t talk to me.
QUESTION: I see.
SECRETARY CLINTON: I mean --
QUESTION: So, he – you can talk to him through me; so what would you like to say?
SECRETARY CLINTON: Hear my speech tonight.
QUESTION: Okay. Are you optimistic that this round of negotiations --
SECRETARY CLINTON: I’m neither optimistic nor pessimistic. I think that it’s like – I know, we got to (inaudible).
QUESTION: Okay. Look for --
SECRETARY CLINTON: I can talk with you, Josh.
QUESTION: Sure, sure.
SECRETARY CLINTON: Sorry.
QUESTION: No problem.
SECRETARY CLINTON: We have to see what attitude they bring. I mean, part of the problem was that they had their own internal debate --
QUESTION: Right.
SECRETARY CLINTON: -- how to handle all of this.
QUESTION: Right.
SECRETARY CLINTON: And it wasn’t until recently that they were willing to come back and talk. So you’re dealing with a regime that has been badly shaken by the events of June ’09, the election, and the decision-making apparatus was kind of knocked off kilter, which meant that trying to get any action step out of them was more difficult than it would have been prior to ’09.
QUESTION: That’s right, true.
SECRETARY CLINTON: So it’s not that – nothing – none of this is a static situation. There are so many moving parts. And we have to watch it all, and we do, trying to evaluate what they’re doing, what their decision making is, what the economic pressures are --
QUESTION: Sure.
SECRETARY CLINTON: -- what the international community’s opinions are. So all of that moves kind of in a bunch.
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