. . .

QUESTION: Let me move to Iran for a second - or for longer than a second. (Laughter.)
Where does that stand now? Because I interviewed Mohamed ElBaradei on Friday, and he said that the Iranians are reluctant to take the deal because they're reluctant to give up their nuclear material. And he suggested that perhaps Turkey might be a more amenable repository for that rather than Russia. Are you involved in this idea or not?

SECRETARY CLINTON: Yes. Well, we're very involved in it, and let me just put it in context. When this idea was first jointly proposed, it was in response to the Iranians' request to the International Atomic Energy Agency for assistance in refueling their Tehran research reactor, which, so far as we know, is not at all connected to their other enrichment program or any program that would lead to weaponization.

QUESTION: In fact, medical purposes, they say.

SECRETARY CLINTON: Medical isotopes. And we happen to believe that's true. So when the Iranians made that request, the United States and Russia together made a joint response. And we said that we would be willing to take out the 1,200 or so kilograms of known low-enriched uranium, have it reprocessed, and then have it returned to fuel the research reactor. The Iranians accepted that in principle and continued to be very favorably disposed toward it at the first meeting on October 1st.

QUESTION: And of course, not only of their representative, but also the president, Ahmadinejad?

SECRETARY CLINTON: Yes.

QUESTION: The president specifically.

SECRETARY CLINTON: That's right. And so it appeared as though there would be a meeting of the minds which would be immensely reassuring to the world that if Iran were willing to do this, it would demonstrate good faith on their part, it would open the door to further talks about their nuclear program. And then I think we have seen a lot of confusion and debate within the Iranian leadership, in some measure fueled by their internal discussions arising out of the election from the opposition they faced, some of it is personality driven. We understand all of that.

QUESTION: But it's coming from all sides. I mean, it's coming from the Ayatollah on one side and also Larijani on another side, and then even from people who are part of the reform movement.

SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, we also believe a lot of it is jockeying, and some of it has got more to do with Ahmadinejad than it does with us or with this proposal. Nevertheless, it is our very firm conviction - and there has been absolute unity among the so-called P-5+1, which, of course, includes both Russia and China, that we expect a favorable response from Iran.

QUESTION: Soon.

SECRETARY CLINTON: Soon, yes. I mean, we understand the internal political dynamics, and we've been, I think, patient in helping them to see that we're serious. There are certain safeguards that could be agreed to that they would get their uranium back once it had been enriched. But they have to take this step as a confidence-building measure with the international community, and I hope that they will do so.

QUESTION: And if they don't?

SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, we'll cross that bridge when we actually come to it.

QUESTION: Well, and the first action is you go to the United Nations for sanctions. Has anything changed that will make the Russians, at that point, more amenable to supporting sanctions? Because many argue that if the Russians support sanctions, so will the Chinese.

SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, I've been encouraged by the comments from President Medvedev just recently again over the weekend in an interview with Der Spiegel here in Germany, where he has talked about perhaps there will be a need for sanctions. And I hope that if it comes to that, which we still would like to avoid by this cooperative arrangement, that we will have everyone on board. And there has already been an agreement entered into by the P-5+1, including Russia and China, that we were on a dual track: We were on one track which was negotiations, diplomacy, agreements like that affecting the Tehran research reactor; but in the absence of progress there, we were on a second track which would look to assert more pressure and impose more sanctions. Whether that's going to be necessary or what the content would be and where they would be sought - there is not anything magical about the UN, there can be other ways of imposing sanctions. So we are in the process of exploring that with others.

QUESTION: Is the Atlantic alliance going to help?

SECRETARY CLINTON: Absolutely.

QUESTION: Are they going to be prepared to enforce?

SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, we've seen an increase in actions by many of the nations of Europe, because they understand that this is a threat to them. When the President made his decision about changing the missile defense architecture, it was in response to a better understanding that our technical and defense experts had that Iran was further advanced in short- and medium-range missiles or long-term missiles. Those short- and medium-range missiles can hit every part of Europe. So I think the Europeans understand that this is a very important step for them to try to help us and others to assert pressure against Iran.

QUESTION: Secretary Gates has said that a military option probably would only delay for a year or two.

SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, no one wants to go to that. I mean, we've always said that every option is on the table. Our goal is to prevent or dissuade Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. And we've made it clear that they have a right to nuclear power that is civil and peacefully used.

QUESTION: Mohamed ElBaradei said that they don't trust us, that the level of trust there - and we obviously have reason not to trust them - you assume, I assume, that there are other facilities that also we may not have discovered so far or they have not acknowledged so far.

SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, we don't have any evidence of that, but obviously we're always vigilant and looking for anything that might suggest another concealed, undisclosed facility. I'm not in any way downplaying the lack of trust. I mean, we have 30 years of mistrust, misunderstanding, and misaligned objectives. I mean, the Iranians not only worry us because of their nuclear program, they worry us because of their support for terrorism, their support for the military wing of Hezbollah, their support for Hamas, their interference in the internal affairs of their neighbors, trying to destabilize Gulf countries and other countries throughout the greater region.

So Iran has given us many reasons to worry about their motivation and their action. But I think what President Obama has tried to do since becoming President is to create a new dynamic where - look, we don't have to trust or love each other to understand that it is in our interest to try to stabilize the world. It is not in Iran's interest to have a nuclear arms race in the Gulf, where they would be less secure than they are today. It is not in Iran's interest, to the Iranian people's interest, to be subjected to very onerous sanctions.

So the President has reached out and has really gone the extra mile to try to engage with the Iranians. If they cannot overcome their mistrust and their internal political dynamics, then we have to do what we think is in our best interests.

QUESTION: They'll have to deal with the consequences?

SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, yeah, of course. I mean, that's the way the world works.

QUESTION: Is there anything that we can do to say to them, "We understand your fear. We understand your paranoia. We've asked you what is your - what can we do to convince you that nuclear weapons are not in your interest?"

SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, those are certainly the messages that the President has publicly stated. As you know, he's had private messages sent to the supreme leader. He has charged the rest of the Administration to convey that message. And I think it was significant when this Administration said we accept your right under appropriate safeguards to have civil nuclear power. We are not going to be demonizing you and calling you names. We'd much rather have a civil diplomatic relationship that could lead to negotiations that would lower the temperature and try to diminish the mistrust. But it takes two to do that. And certainly, the way the Iranian Government handled the elections, the response to legitimate opposition, has been very disconcerting because it demonstrates they don't trust their own people. It's not only that they trust us, they don't trust many Iranians.

So when you get to that level --

QUESTION: (Inaudible.)

SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, that's right. And so you get to that level of mistrust all the way around you. How do you break through that is what we're looking for. But it may or may not be possible. That's pretty much up to the Iranians.

QUESTION: Someone wrote about this particular place that we are sitting, that there was a moment in history in which it split the right way --

SECRETARY CLINTON: Mm-hmm.

QUESTION: -- as to whether at that moment in Iran after that election, when there are more than a million people on the street --

SECRETARY CLINTON: Right.

QUESTION: -- it went the other way.

SECRETARY CLINTON: Right.

QUESTION: That that was not something --

SECRETARY CLINTON: But I don't think that's the end of the story, Charlie. I don't think that's the end of the story at all. I think that that's part of what we see going on. If this were a confident leadership, they would accept the Tehran research reactor deal.

QUESTION: Right.

SECRETARY CLINTON: They would not be worried about it. This is not a confident leadership because of the pressures that are coming from within Iran as well as from outside.

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