Hillary Clinton is in Europe to address a wide range of issues from the Middle East to Russia to the economic crisis. Lisa Mullins finds out more from The World's Matthew Bell.
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LISA MULLINS: The United States wants to hold an international meeting about Afghanistan. And if such a meeting is to take place, Washington wants to invite Iran. That's what Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said today in Brussels. She was in Brussels for a gathering of NATO officials. The World's Matthew Bell is following this story. How significant, Matthew, is it that the US is considering inviting Iran?
MATTHEW BELL: It's significant in that the Obama administration has talked an awful lot about extending the hand of diplomacy to Iran, and this is really the first time they're really sort of putting their money where their mouth is and kind of putting the ball in Iran's court. Iran will have the choice of either, if the meeting comes together, accepting the invitation and sending someone – presumably it will be Hillary Clinton's counterpart, the Foreign Minister of Iran – or rejecting it. I think they're sort of putting the ball in Iran's court and giving them a chance to accept or reject the offer.
MULLINS: Well, interestingly, Iran has an ally in Syria and the Obama administration has said that it's sending two high-level officials to Syria. How big a change in US policy is this?
BELL: This would be the first visit of high-level US officials to Syria in more than four years. The Bush administration recalled the US ambassador from Syria back in 2005, when Rafik Hariri, the Prime minister of Lebanon, was assassinated. Syrian officials were said to have had a role in the assassination. They have denied it. But relations since then with Syria have not been good.
MULLINS: And the main obstacles to warmer relations are what?
BELL: Well, Syria is said by Washington to support Hezbollah in southern Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza. Syria has ties with Iran. Syria's been accused of cooperating on nuclear proliferation with North Korea. There was the nuclear site that was destroyed by the Israeli Air Force back in 2007. It's a whole host of issues. I think one thing that's going on here, I think the Obama administration is reaching out to Syria and Iran in a way to just explore both tracks and see if one doesn't work with the US in a more cooperative way, maybe the other one will. And they're trying to sort of divide and conquer if you will and kind of split that axis of cooperation between Syria and Iran that has been a real problem for Washington.
MULLINS: Hillary Clinton has had an extremely busy week. She was in the Middle East where she reaffirmed US support for Israel, but then, Matthew, she also had as you know some criticism for the Israelis. What was all that about?
BELL: That's right. She went to the West Bank to meet with the Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, and while she was there she was asked about the recent decision by the city government of Jerusalem to demolish dozens of homes and evict something like 1500 people out of the Arab-East Jerusalem neighborhood. The city government there says that these houses were built without permits. The Palestinians say it's impossible to get these kinds of permits. In any case, when Hillary Clinton was asked about this, she said that demolishing the homes would be unhelpful. She also said that Israeli settlements in the West Bank are an issue that she would discuss with Israeli officials.
MULLINS: All right. She's going to have a lot of talking to do about and to Russia, because that's next on her agenda.
BELL: That's right. The week is not over. It's been a long week, but it's only half over for Hillary Clinton. She's meeting with the Russian Foreign Minister tomorrow. What are they going to talk about? Iran is the big one. She said today that Iran and the Iranian missile program will be a topic of discussion. Presumably the Iranian nuclear program will be discussed. The way to put this into perspective with US-Russian relations is that as Vice President Joe Biden has said, “It's time to re-boot US-Russian relations.†Now, when do you re-boot your computer? After it's crashed. So I think that's probably a good way of thinking about how things stand right now.
MULLINS: All right. The World's Matthew Bell. Thanks, Matthew.
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