Briefing Skipper: Afghanistan, Haiti, START, Aung San Suu Kyi, Iran hikers
In which we scour the transcript of the State Department’s daily presser so you don’t have to. Here are the highlights of Tuesday’s briefing by spokesman P.J. Crowley: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with Kurdistan Regional Government President Massoud Barzani, who also met with President Obama. Then Clinton left for London to meet 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 Tuesday’s briefing by spokesman P.J. Crowley:
- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with Kurdistan Regional Government President Massoud Barzani, who also met with President Obama. Then Clinton left for London to meet with world leaders on Yemen and then join the international conference on Afghanistan. She’ll move on to Paris after that.
- At the Afghanistan conference, in addition to reviewing "milestones and metrics" for progress of the Afghan government, the world leaders will be discussing how to engage elements of the Taliban that could be persuaded to give up the fight. "So we will be looking at how to set up a special fund, to be able to support those who are committed to giving up violence," said Crowley, "And I think that there will be discussions about a reconciliation strategy."
- Crowley stood by Clinton’s statements yesterday saying she "deeply resents" the criticism of the relief effort in Haiti. "You have criticisms coming from Italy, occasionally from France. We’ve had General Honore in our own country, who has, you know, tried to draw an equivalence between our experience in New Orleans and experience in Haiti, and the fact is, you cannot compare the two."
- Crowley singled out Al Jazeera’s English channel, which compared the U.S. relief effort in Haiti to the Green zone in Baghdad.
- National Security Advisor Jim Jones, Joint Chiefs Chairman Mike Mullen, and Undersecretary of State for Arms Control Ellen Tauscher just got back from Moscow where they were meeting about the follow on to the START nuclear agreement. Formal negotiations will resume in Geneva on Monday led by Assistant Secretary Rose Gottemoeller. Source tell The Cable that "progress was made" in Moscow and an agreement could be completed soon. "I think we’re reasonably optimistic that the finish line is within sight," Crowley said.
- Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs Arturo Valenzuela, his principal deputy Craig Kelly, and Assistant Secretary for Economic and Business Affairs Jose Fernandez are in Honduras to attend the inauguration of new president Pepe Lobo.
- Crowley had cautious praise for the reported pending release of democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi by the Burmese Junta. "I think the idea that her release will conveniently come after the election is unfortunate, but we will continue to press the Burmese government, you know, for her release," he said.
- The State Department dispatched four helicopters to aid Peruvian authorities in the evacuation of 400 Americans from the area around Machu Picchu in Peru, which is being plagued by rains and mudslides.
- Clinton talked to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown Tuesday about the power sharing negotiations in Northern Ireland. Will she get personally involved in the issue? "It’s always possible," Crowley said.
- Still no consular access to the American hikers imprisoned in Iran, despite that Belgians just released from the same prison said they were "deeply concerned" about the fate of the hikers.
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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