The Cable

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Briefing Skipper: Clinton, Netanyahu, Honduras, North Korea

In which we scour the transcript of the State Department’s daily presser so you don’t have to. Here are the highlights of today’s briefing by spokesman Ian Kelly: Hillary Clinton had meetings in New York today with the foreign ministers of South Korea, Czech Republic, Turkmenistan, and Japan. Also meeting with the presidents of Costa ...

In which we scour the transcript of the State Department's daily presser so you don't have to. Here are the highlights of today's briefing by spokesman Ian Kelly:

In which we scour the transcript of the State Department’s daily presser so you don’t have to. Here are the highlights of today’s briefing by spokesman Ian Kelly:

  • Hillary Clinton had meetings in New York today with the foreign ministers of South Korea, Czech Republic, Turkmenistan, and Japan. Also meeting with the presidents of Costa Rica and Georgia and participate in a trilateral dialogue with Japan and Australia.
  • Obama’s trilateral meeting Benjamin Netanyahu and Mahmoud Abbas tomorrow on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly may not actually produce any results, but it will "advance our efforts towards our ultimate goal" and "it shows that [Obama] is personally engaged in the effort," Kelly said. The U.N. Security Council meeting will be the first at the head of state level in some time.
  • President Manuel Zelaya has returned to Honduras! "All I can say is reiterate our almost daily call on both sides to exercise restraint and refrain from any kind of action that would have any possible outcome in violence," said Kelly, adding "Of course, we believe that he’s the democratic — democratically elected and constitutional leader of Honduras." Senator Jim DeMint, R-S.C., disagrees.
  • No comment on reports that the State Department is sitting on 25 visa applications from Iran.
  • There are no plans to meet with the North Koreans in any way in New York this week and still no decision about whether Ambassador Stephen Bosworth will accept Kim Jong Il’s invitation to travel there.

Josh Rogin covers national security and foreign policy and writes the daily Web column The Cable. His column appears bi-weekly in the print edition of The Washington Post. He can be reached for comments or tips at josh.rogin@foreignpolicy.com.

Previously, Josh covered defense and foreign policy as a staff writer for Congressional Quarterly, writing extensively on Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantánamo Bay, U.S.-Asia relations, defense budgeting and appropriations, and the defense lobbying and contracting industries. Prior to that, he covered military modernization, cyber warfare, space, and missile defense for Federal Computer Week Magazine. He has also served as Pentagon Staff Reporter for the Asahi Shimbun, Japan's leading daily newspaper, in its Washington, D.C., bureau, where he reported on U.S.-Japan relations, Chinese military modernization, the North Korean nuclear crisis, and more.

A graduate of George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs, Josh lived in Yokohama, Japan, and studied at Tokyo's Sophia University. He speaks conversational Japanese and has reported from the region. He has also worked at the House International Relations Committee, the Embassy of Japan, and the Brookings Institution.

Josh's reporting has been featured on CNN, MSNBC, C-Span, CBS, ABC, NPR, WTOP, and several other outlets. He was a 2008-2009 National Press Foundation's Paul Miller Washington Reporting Fellow, 2009 military reporting fellow with the Knight Center for Specialized Journalism and the 2011 recipient of the InterAction Award for Excellence in International Reporting. He hails from Philadelphia and lives in Washington, D.C. Twitter: @joshrogin

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