The Cable

The Cable goes inside the foreign policy machine, from Foggy Bottom to Turtle Bay, the White House to Embassy Row.

Briefing Skipper: Hillary on the Hill, Rice in the Middle East, Iran deadline

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 Department Spokesman Ian Kelly: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton climbed the Hill today to meet with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Senate Armed Services Committee chairman Carl Levin, lunch with ...

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 Department 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 Department Spokesman Ian Kelly:

  • Secretary of State Hillary Clinton climbed the Hill today to meet with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Senate Armed Services Committee chairman Carl Levin, lunch with Democratic Policy Committee head Byron Dorgan, and have dinner with House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer. She also met with President Obama to give her report on the progress made toward relaunch of the Israeli-Palestinian talks (short meeting?).
  • U.N. Amb. Susan Rice is still in the Middle East and met with Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.
  • The State Department is going to wait until tomorrow to get the official word from the Iranians on whether they will approve the draft agreement on transferring their low-enriched uranium abroad. Kelly wouldn’t comment on reports that Iran is already backing out of the deal. "I’m sure there are a lot of voices in Tehran right now, but we’re going to wait for that authoritative answer tomorrow," he said.
  • Kelly rejected Sri Lanka’s rejection of a new report recounting all the allegations of war crimes by both the government and the Tamil Tigers during violence earlier this year. The report doesn’t attempt to verify all the claims, but we believe that the claims … are credible," he said.
  • The U.S. wants the Iraqi government to "move expeditiously" to settle their dispute over an election law to govern the January polls, Kelly said. Since the Council of Representatives (Iraq’s lower house) couldn’t agree on a text, the debate will move to their Council for National Security. There are concerns any delay in the election could cause a corresponding delay in U.S. plans to drawdown troops there.
  • The 90-day congressional review period for the U.S.-UAE nuclear deal has expired, meaning there are no more obstacles on the American side for it to go into full force, Kelly said. "The next step is to talk to the government of the UAE to see what their own requirements are for us to enter into this formally."

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

More from Foreign Policy

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping give a toast during a reception following their talks at the Kremlin in Moscow on March 21.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping give a toast during a reception following their talks at the Kremlin in Moscow on March 21.

Can Russia Get Used to Being China’s Little Brother?

The power dynamic between Beijing and Moscow has switched dramatically.

Xi and Putin shake hands while carrying red folders.
Xi and Putin shake hands while carrying red folders.

Xi and Putin Have the Most Consequential Undeclared Alliance in the World

It’s become more important than Washington’s official alliances today.

Russian President Vladimir Putin greets Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.
Russian President Vladimir Putin greets Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.

It’s a New Great Game. Again.

Across Central Asia, Russia’s brand is tainted by Ukraine, China’s got challenges, and Washington senses another opening.

Kurdish military officers take part in a graduation ceremony in Erbil, the capital of Iraq’s Kurdistan Region, on Jan. 15.
Kurdish military officers take part in a graduation ceremony in Erbil, the capital of Iraq’s Kurdistan Region, on Jan. 15.

Iraqi Kurdistan’s House of Cards Is Collapsing

The region once seemed a bright spot in the disorder unleashed by U.S. regime change. Today, things look bleak.