Briefing Skipper: Kabul, IAEA, Bosworth, Cuba, Honduras

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

• Secretary of State Hillary Clinton finished up her visit to Kabul Thursday, where she addressed Afghan government corruption. "I thought that the inaugural speech that President Karzai gave today set forth an agenda for change and reform. He was particularly strong on the steps that he intends to take regarding corruption, the idea that government officials will have to register their assets so that any money or other influence can be more easily tracked is a very bold proposal," Clinton said.
• Back in Washington, the State Department is conducting a "ministry by ministry" review of all U.S. aid going to different parts Afghan government, Kelly said, including dramatically increasing the USAID personnel monitoring aid projects. "If these agencies and ministries don’t — if we’re not able to certify them as having open and accountable procedures, they simply won’t receive the direct aid."
• No real comment on reports that German Minister of Defense Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg said Germany won’t send any more troops to Afghanistan, although those reports seem to miss the 120 new troops he recently announced. "Every country has to decide what’s in their own national interests, how they can best help in this effort," said Kelly.
• The IAEA’s by Javier Solana will meet Friday with the P-5 plus one countries, to "talk about what the president said that we have to start turning our attention to. And that’s developing a package of measures that will show to Iran the seriousness of the consequences of their noncompliance with the requirements of the international community," Kelly said. The deadline is the end of the year, Kelly added, "which is coming very quickly."
• Ambassador Stephen Bosworth will go to Pyongyang December 8 with a small interagency delegation, after which he will also visit Tokyo, Seoul, Bejing, and Moscow (not necessarily in that order). The U.S. is only interested in discussing top security issues, Kelly said, adding "It’s pretty fair to say that we’re going to go into this with our eyes wide open."
• Kelly responded to the Human Rights Watch report which said Cuba’s treatment of political prisoners has not improved under Raul Castro, but said the U.S. is not ready to take further steps regarding Cuba past what has been done so far. "We are waiting to see Cuba take some concrete steps to show that they are also serious in opening up their society and opening up exchanges and interactions with the U.S.," Kelly said, "And I think that we need to see some more concrete steps before we take any actions like that."
• He also acknowledged, but didn’t pledge any action, regarding accusations of abuses and media persecution by the Honduran de facto regime led by Roberto Micheletti. "The U.S. embassy in Tegucigalpa is closely monitoring the situation. It has reported back to us about a number of allegations of arbitrary arrests, disproportionate use of force and, in particular, restrictions on freedom of expression. So yeah, we are concerned about it," Kelly said.