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QUESTION: Secretary Hillary Clinton, thank you very much for joining us here on the BBC in a rather unusual location, Kazan --

SECRETARY CLINTON: Indeed, Kazan.

QUESTION: -- the capital of Tatarstan, the Russian Federation. It's the end of a five-day trip for you, very hectic schedule. And I wanted to start by asking you about your last stop, which was Moscow. Now it does appear as though Russia now does see Iran as a threat, just like you, and we did hear from President Dmitriy Medvedev who said that sanctions were sometimes inevitable.

But you don't seem to be on the same page when it comes to a sustained, continued, public pressure on Iran. We heard yesterday the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov say that counter - that pressure would be counterproductive at this stage. This is not the united front you were looking for.

SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, actually, I think it is, but I believe that the Russians have certainly agreed with us that we have to have a two-track approach - the first track, which we are pursuing, on diplomacy, the P-5+1 meeting in Geneva, the agreements that Iran has made to open its previously undisclosed site to international inspections and to ship out its low-enriched uranium for reprocessing outside of Iran. We are in total agreement on all of that. And we are also in agreement that if our diplomatic engagement is not successful, then we have to look at other measures to take, including sanctions, to try to pressure the Iranians.

The Russians believe that they are being more effective working in private, working behind the scenes. They have joined our public statements, the P-5+1 statement, and of course, the action at Geneva. We continue to believe that we do need to keep the public pressure on, but there's no difference in approach or ultimate objective.

QUESTION: So do you feel that Russia's position is closer to yours than ever before on Iran?

SECRETARY CLINTON: I do. I believe that in the last six months, we have seen that. Our two presidents have discussed this on several occasions. I was with President Obama when he met with President Medvedev in New York. In my conversations with Minister Lavrov and our meetings with other interested parties, I think that there has been a tremendous move on the part of the Russians to recognize this threat, because that's where it starts.

And in my conversations, I know that they have done an assessment. They've looked at the same evidence we have seen. And they're looking for the same outcome; they just want to be sure that what we're doing in their view is going to achieve it.

QUESTION: But are they ready to discuss the specific of sanctions - when those sanctions will be needed? Because the next test of Iran's intentions comes very soon; in fact, over the next few weeks. So have you been able to get any specifics from them?

SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, yes. Indeed, if the Iranians do not carry through on their agreement in principle to ship out their low-enriched uranium, the Russians have made it very clear that that will call for action. So I don't want to get ahead of myself and I don't want to answer a hypothetical. I think it's important that we stay together, we keep moving together, and we stay committed to the same goal, which is to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear weapons pile.

QUESTION: Are you at all worried that the Russians are maybe stringing you along? Because they can play nice, they can hold out hope to you that they're going to go along with you on sanctions. But they know that the Chinese will do all the stalling that is needed for them on the sanctions when it comes to action at the Security Council.

SECRETARY CLINTON: I believe that this is a difficult process for both the Chinese and the Russians. Until relatively recently within the last months, I don't think they saw the threat the way that we and others saw it. We've been intensifying our cooperation, our sharing of information, our analysis of what could come more broadly were Iran to be successful.
And so I certainly see the Russians moving. Now, the Russians are more immediately affected. They are on --

QUESTION: And so they're more careful?

SECRETARY CLINTON: I think they are also more careful, but also perhaps more aware of the threats that we see coming from Iran because they're in proximity. China's a long way away. China's relationship with Iran is primarily commercial. But we're continuing to work and share information, and I think the fact that all of our P-5+1 partners have signed off on some very strong statements would not have happened without this kind of effort.

QUESTION: So you don't think that they're playing nice in the hope to have warmer relations with you and have, perhaps, concessions on certain issues? I'm not saying that the missile defense shield position was a concession, but it is something that they welcomed very, very much. So they're putting you in a position where you're more amenable to their demands.

SECRETARY CLINTON: I don't see it that way, Kim. I think that - like, take missile defense. We made an assessment that the Iranian threat was different than what the Bush Administration thought it was. The Bush Administration's plan was really aimed at long-range missiles - ICBMs, intercontinental ballistic missiles. Our assessment is that the Iranians have moved much faster on the short and medium-range missiles. So when we came up with what we call the phased, adaptive approach, it was really in response to how we see the threat.

So it was clear, as we explained it to the Russians, that this was something we did in our national security based on what we think is a better analysis. But I think the Russians see that if Iran poses a threat to the greater European region, to our forward-based troops in NATO, it's next door. So all of a sudden, it becomes more in their national security interest to cooperate with us and to really make their own assessments, which they're doing.

QUESTION: Do you think that the Iranians bought themselves some time in Geneva when they agreed in principle to, for example, allow the inspectors to enter the Qom site?

SECRETARY CLINTON: I think that they did buy some time, but they also made some commitments. And any wavering from those commitments would be another reason for the international community to speed up its timetable. So this is what diplomacy is. The slow boring of hard boards, I think, is one expression. Well, the Iranians made commitments and they're going to be expected by the Russians and the Chinese to fulfill those commitments.

QUESTION: How do you think that you can convince the Iranian leadership that it is better for them to give up their nuclear ambitions, that they would be safer if they didn't have this nuclear arsenal? Because after all, for the Iranians, it's about power, it's about regional clout, and it's - they do that for the same reason that they have ties with Hezbollah and Hamas. So why would they give that up?

SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, because as you say, their fundamental assumption has to be that pursuing nuclear weapons enhances their power and prestige in the region. But if, by pursuing nuclear weapons, they spark a nuclear arms race, and countries that are opposed to their ambitions and have deep differences with Iran similarly obtain nuclear weapons, then are they safer? And --

QUESTION: They may be more powerful.

SECRETARY CLINTON: Or less powerful. I mean, you are probably more powerful if you are the only one in the group that has a certain asset. But if you are just one of several, and your enemies are as well armed with as great a capacity for destruction and the possibility for mistakes, miscalculations increases geometrically, I don't know that that's the best decision for you to make.

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