The diplomatic Middle East Quartet, which met in Moscow Friday 19 March, has issued a strongly worded reaction to Israel’s recent announcement it intends to build 1,600 new homes in East Jerusalem. The group of four (the UN, US, Russia and the EU) are calling for Israel to remove settlement homes within 24 months. and for Palestinians and Israelis to negotiate an agreement in the same time period that provides for an independent Palestinian state living next to Israel in peace. “The quartet condemns the decision by the government of Israel to advance planning for new housing units in East Jerusalem, “UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon said unequivocally.
The New York Times had earlier reported that US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton appeared anxious to lower the temperature after Israel came in for heavy criticism over the housing. “We all condemned the announcement, and we all are expecting both parties to move toward the proximity talks and to help create an atmosphere in which those talks can be constructive,” Clinton said before the Quartet’s statement.
Links to other sites: Guardian, UK, Jerusalem Post, Moscow Times, New York Times
Hillary Clinton, Geneva, March 2009
Update 16:12 Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Hillary Clinton, US Secretary of State and Sergey Lavrov, Russian foreign minister, have said after meeting in Moscow that the two countries are very close to an agreement on the Start talks. Clinton was in Moscow for a meeting of the Middle East Quartet.
The announcement by the pair comes just after the publication of a lengthy interview of Clinton by New Times, a Russian magazine, where she says the US and Russia are “close” to an agreement on reducing their arsenals of nuclear weapons. “I’m optimistic that we’ll be able to complete this agreement soon.”
Clinton and Lavrov agreed in Geneva in March 2009 to seek a new Start treaty by the end of 2009, and while both sides said in December that good progress had been made, the year-end goal was not achieved. Few details of the talks have escaped the total news blackout which both sides have respected.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is in Brussels, Belgium Friday, where she has traveled to explain the new US policy on Afghanistan to European leaders. She is expected to seek support from fellow Nato members. She told reporters on her plane en route to Brussels that in intensive talks with other foreign ministers this week she received strong words of support. Clinton says she expects announcements to be made in the next few days of additional troops sent by other governments, although she concedes that for some, the timing is politically delicate.
Links to other sites: BBC, New York Times, Reuters/Yahoo, Times, UK
Iran’s Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Tuesday 10 November that the three US hikers detained by Iran after they strayed across the border from Iraq last July face charges of illegally entering the country. Other charges may be filed. The US has called for the three to be released, and insists that they were wrongly detained. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in Germany Monday 9 November, “We believe strongly that there is no evidence to support any charge whatsoever.” AFP , AP (video)
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, 74, has said he will not seek re-election in the elections he called for January 2010. He said his decision was not “a manipulation or a manoeuvre” in a speech from his headquarters in Ramallah, on the West Bank 5 November. He said he had had enough after years of frustration. Abbas succeeded long-time president Yasser Arafat in 2004.
Addressing the Israeli public directly, he said: “Peace is more important than any achievement for a political party. Peace is more important than any government coalition. For many years, my opinion and vision have been that peace was still possible and I have sincerely worked to achieve this goal“.
The decision is seen as a blow to the US administration’s attempts to restart the Middle East peace process, coming just days after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s visit to the region, which she judged to be a success. Palestinians were outraged when she said Israel’s offer to slow down illegal settlements in the West Bank was “unprecedented”. Al-Jazeera, Jerusalem Post, New York Times
correction 11:45 Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The Swiss government is officially mum on whether or not the event will take place, but the US State Department and the Kremlin in Russia have both announced that they are sending top officials to a ceremony in Zurich Saturday 10 October where Armenia and Turkey will formally establish diplomatic and bilateral relations. The signing of two Protocols will end a standoff that has at times flared into serious tensions, which has existed since Turkey recognized Armenia’s independence in 1991 without then establishing diplomatic relations.
Switzerland has served as mediator in the long process of talks that has finally brought the two together.
A senior US State Department official at a press briefing Thursday 8 October said that while the Swiss have not officially announced the meeting, which is opposed by some groups in both Turkey and Armenia, “They have invited the parties, and the parties have agreed to come, including Secretary [Hillary] Clinton.” The foreign ministers of France and Russia are also expected, he says.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton flew to Nairobi, Kenya 3 August on the first leg of an African tour that underscores the importance the Obama administration attaches to engaging with Africa, a policy begun under the previous administration. It comes just three weeks after President Obama’s speech in Accra, Ghana. In addition to Kenya, Clinton will visit South Africa, Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Liberia and Cape Verde. All Africa, US Department of State
[video] Washington, DC (GenevaLunch) – Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met in Washington, DC Friday 31 July for their second working visit since March 2009 when the two met in Geneva, Switzerland. The two had little to say to the press following the meeting, followed with more than usual interest because of the announcement earlier in the day that the two governments had reached an Agreement in Principle for an out of court settlement in the UBS bank court case.
According to the Swiss foreign affairs office, the talks covered mainly “the situations in the southern Caucasus, the Near East and the Middle East. Secretary of State Clinton took the opportunity to thank Switzerland for representing the USA in countries such as Iran as well as for Switzerland’s commitment to many internationally important issues, in particular in its role as a mediator.”
UBS case mentioned, not discussed
The Agreement in Principle in the UBS case was mentioned, but was not discussed, with the two saying that teams from the two governments will be working out details of the agreement in the coming week.
Transcript of the post-meeting press briefing in Washington
Video from the US State Department
UBS New York headquarters
Update 3 17:25 Bern and Zurich, Switzerland/Miami, Florida and Washington, DC, USA (GenevaLunch) - Shares in UBS rose more than 4 percent in the minutes following the news that Switzerland and the UBS have reached an Agreement in Principle in the civil case brought by the US Treasury department against Swiss bank UBS. The case will now be settled out of court, the Swiss government says in a statement issued late Friday afternoon. (background)
The two governments have reached an agreement in principle on the major issues in the case involving UBS and the IRS tax authority, US Justice Department attorney Stuart Gibson told the judge presiding over the case Friday 31 July. Neither he nor Judge Alan Gold provided details about the agreement, and the Swiss government says that “confidentiality has been agreed for the full duration of the negotiation process.”
Some early media reports noted that the judge has postponed the evidentiary hearing, whose opening had been delayed to Monday 3 August, until a week later, 10 August, with the parties scheduled to hold a status conference 7 August. But according to the Swiss government, the court has simply asked for an update on the details of the settlement Friday 7 August, and has scheduled a conference for this purpose.
Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton meet today in Washington, DC.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - An empty desk in Geneva is receiving more than normal attention: that of the US ambassador, whose unwieldy title is US Permanent Representative to the United Nations and Other International Organizations. The post has been empty since January 2009 when Warren Tichenor left. Tichenor, a Texan and George W Bush appointment, may not have been a household name, but the new US ambassador could well quickly become one, thanks to sharper interest in how the US will work with other countries on several issues, many of them through international organizations based in Geneva.
This is the era of the Obama administration, with its promise of new relationships, and the period of Hillary Clinton at the helm of the US State Department, re-booting the Start talks with her Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in Geneva in March 2009. Obama told a group of ambassadors in Washington Wednesday 29 July that “I came into office with a strong commitment to renew American diplomacy, and to start a new era of engagement with the world. This must be a moment when we engage on the basis of mutual interest and mutual respect, so that we can build new partnerships for progress.”
Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe (image: Cisac, Stanford University)
One name being bandied about for the Geneva ambassador’s job is that of Obama fundraiser Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe. Le Temps wrote some weeks ago that she will be named, basing the information on “sources close” to President Obama, and IP Watch, an intellectual property industry newsletter, named her as the likely candidate in a 29 July article.
The European Union’s external affairs commissioner, Benita Ferrero-Waldner, said Monday 20 July that she was suspending EU aid of €65.5 million to the impoverished Central American nation of Honduras as a result of the political stand-off there. She said the decision was “difficult” . Hillary Clinton called Honduran Interim President Roberto Micheletti from New Delhi, India and warned of “harsh consequences” if the negotiations between the de facto government and ousted president Manuel Zelaya failed to reach an accord. The measures are seen as increasing pressure on the government in Honduras.(CNN).
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Micheline Calmy-Rey, Switzerland’s minister for foreign affairs, will meet with Hillary Clinton, US Secretary of State, in Washington, DC, 31 July. The two countries and Swiss bank UBS have been given until 3 August by a US federal court judge in Miami, Florida to find an out-of-court settlement for the IRS legal demand that the bank hand over client information on 52,000 accounts. The Washington Post carries an editorial that says the issue is emotional on both sides:
Oscar Arias, former president of Costa Rica and Nobel prize winner, will lead talks with rival Honduran political forces in an effort to find a settlement to the crisis that has swept the Central American nation following the ouster of its president 28 June. The meetings were announced in Washington following talks between ousted president Manuel Zelaya and US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton.
Israel’s Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met 16 June, with the Financial Times saying it “appeared [to be] one of the most tense encounters between the sides for several years” over the issue of Israeli settlements on the West Bank. They disagreed strongly both on US insistance that growth of the settlements stop and Israel’s argument that George W Bush agreed to some expansion.
Hillary Clinton broke her elbow later in the day when she slipped and fell on it as she was heading for the White House. She was treated and released but will have surgery to mend it in coming weeks. CNN
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Sunday 7 June on ABC television in the US that she never dreamed she would be asked by President Barack Obama to take responsibility for foreign policy and when he did ask, she initially said no. He was “was quite persistent and very persuasive,” however, and in the end she said yes. ABC, CNN
The United States and Britain are encouraging China to come out into the open about what happened during the student uprising in Tiananmen Square in Beijing 20 years ago, June 1989, reports the BBC, with statements from British Foreign Secretary David Miliband and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Clinton’s statement is interpreted by at least one experienced observer as the US taking a firmer stance with China on human rights. Western media are carrying the 20th anniversary story as headlines news, while in China security is tight and there is virtually no media mention of Tiananmen. CNN’s bureau chief Jaime Florcruz, who has been in Beijing for some 30 years, notes that for the younger generation of Chinese, there is little interest in the protests of two decades ago, a theme carried by Le Monde (Fre). Globe & Mail, Canada, New York Times, Times, UK,
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Russians and US teams met for five rounds of talks from 1-3 June, the followup to an agreement in 9 March 2009 in Geneva between US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, to re-open the START (strategic arms reduction treaty) talks. A spokesperson for the US Mission to the UN in Geneva would comment only that “The current 3-day round of talks on an agreement to replace the START treaty has concluded in Geneva,” adding that the US was represented at the talks “by an interagency team lead by Rose Gottemoeller, Assistant Secretary of State for Verification, Compliance, and Implementation.”
Cuba and the US have agreed to talks about improving migration from the island to the US to make it safer and more orderly. They will also discuss direct mail service between the two countries. Senior State department officials in Washington confirmed Saturday that Cuban officials have left open the possibility that future talks might include other topics, such as disaster-preparedness, counter-narcotics and counter-terrorism. US President Barack Obama earlier lifted restrictions on family visits and remittances to Cuba.
This comes as US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton heads to Honduras for a meeting of the Organization of American States (OAS), where calls for Cuba’s readmission to the group will be debated. CNN, USA Today
US Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner, struck a relatively upbeat note on the economy, saying the downturn appears to be losing force, in a speech where he emphasized US-China cooperation, at the start of his first visit with Chinese officials in Beijing, Sunday. He meets Monday with his Chinese counterpart, Wang Qishan, vice-premier. Xinhua, the official Chinese media, notes that according to their diplomatic sources his visit prepares the way for the “first China-US Strategic and Economic Dialogue in Washington DC this summer,” with Geithner and Wang responsible for the economic dialogue and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Chinese State Councilor Dai Bingguo in charge of the strategic talks. New York Times/IHT
Updated 121:20 In the sharpest message sent in years by a US administration to Israel, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told reporters after meeting with the Egyptian foreign minister that Israel must stop all settlements activities in Palestine, with no exceptions. “We think it is in the best interest of the effort that we are engaged in, that settlement expansion cease,” she said, noting that US President Barack Obama had been very clear on the matter in a recent meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas is due in Washington 28 May, and the settlements will be a topic in scheduled talks with Obama. Al Jazeera, BBC, New York Times and analysis, Jerusalem Post
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, addressing the US Foreign Affairs Committee, had harsh words for Pakistan Wednesday 22 April, accusing the country of allowing terrorists to manage parts of the country, a reference to the recent agreement to allow Sharia law in the Swat Valley, a popular resort area, a demand made by Taliban groups. She called on expatriates and Pakistan’s population to stand up to the “exitential threat” posed by “a loosely confederated group of terrorists and others who are seeking the overthrow of the Pakistani state, a nuclear-armed state.” BBC, CNN
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Part of the good-natured banter between the Hillary Clinton and Sergey Lavrov in Geneva Friday night centred around the “reset” button that Clinton offered Lavrov as a gift. Read more…
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – “We are ready to study ways to widen the scope of mutual cooperation” in the matter of fiscal fraud, Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey told US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in a Friday evening meeting in Geneva. High on the list of topics the two leaders covered was Switzerland’s new role, which went into effect 5 March, of providing interest sections to Georgia and Russia, representing the interests of each with the other.
The next step?
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Friday 6 March meeting in Geneva between US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov could well enter the records as a key encounter, if US hopes for the meeting are realized. The United States and Russia have a long history of meeting on neutral territory in Geneva to discuss the state of the world and their own complex relationship. “There have been letters between the leaders, between the foreign ministers, outlining a way forward and a positive agenda, and it is on that that we want to build, but with our eyes open about some of the differences we have,” a State Department spokesman, Gordon Duguid, told a White House press briefing Friday 26 February.
Geneva, Switzerland
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will be in Geneva at the end of next week, part of a seven-day swing through Israel, Egypt, the Palestinian Territories, Belgium, Switzerland, and Turkey 1-7 March 2009.
