Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton Remarks on Success of Iran Sanctions in Interview with Jill Dougherty of CNN (Excerpts)

January 12, 2011

Weapon Program: 

  • Nuclear

... QUESTION: I want to start with Iran because it has been really a key issue here in this Gulf trip. And two years after the Administration began working on its engagement policy - granted there has been some success in the sanctions slowing down Iran's nuclear program, but essentially, you haven't really been successful and no closer to stopping their program. And in fact, you're not even close to negotiations to get them to stop. And the question really seems to be: Is it time for something harder? Because we've heard that in this region, a lot of (inaudible) do want more interaction.

 

SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, Jill, I disagree with the notion that we haven't made progress, because the facts are very different. We have made progress. In the last two years, we moved from a policy of condemning and standing alone and seeing nothing happen to rallying the international community to impose very tough sanctions which are making a difference. Just recently, the outgoing head of the Israeli intelligence agency made that point, that - and he was also publicly saying a combination of sanctions and covert actions have significantly slowed down the Iranian program.

We are also back to the so-called P-5+1 negotiations which were on hold for over a year. They will be meeting in Istanbul in just a little while. Now, this is a very long and challenging path that we have chosen to try to get the international community, get the sanctions, get the kind of support that we need to change the leadership (inaudible) Iran's thinking about nuclear weapons. But we've made progress. Can we run up the flag and say oh, no, we've reached the conclusion we sought? Not yet, but we're making progress.

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