You know, what I think everybody is intrigued by is how this is all going to work, because you have a lot of very powerful personalities dealing with foreign policy, with diplomacy, et cetera — Biden, Gates, Jones and you, and the president.
And the president, of course.
Not to forget him. So how is it going to work? Some are saying tug of war
Oh, no, no. I think we have already established a collegial, effective working relationship. The vice-president, national security advisor, the secretary of defense, and I are committed to the same goal, and that is to ensure that the president’s policies are effectively carried out. It is a tremendous honour to be the secretary of state. There’s a great exhalation of breath going on around the world as people express their appreciation for the new direction that’s being set and the team that’s put together by the president to carry out our foreign policy goals.
Were people really that fed up with the previous administration?
Well, I think it’s a recognition on two counts: one, that where continuity is appropriate, we are committed to doing that. I just got off the phone with the president and foreign minister in Iraq to reinforce our commitment to a democratic and sovereign Iraq, and the importance of their provincial elections. So it’s not any kind of repudiation or indictment of the past eight years so much as an excitement and an acceptance of how we’re going to be doing business.
The president has spoken about coming up with a comprehensive policy towards Iran. How do you see it unfolding, and will there be someone delegated, such as a Dennis Ross or some other person, to take charge of Iran, in particular?
The president’s position, which has been very clear that he reserves the right to engage in whatever way he deems best, at whatever time he chooses to further American interests. And clearly, that is not limited to any one country. It is a broad statement of our approach. We are engaged ourselves in a vigorous policy analysis of a number of problems and challenges that we face around the world. And we will be, you know, rolling out ideas and plans as we go forward. With Afghanistan and Pakistan, there has been an ongoing review that was begun under the former administration that has put a lot of actions in motion. And we are engaged very vigorously in trying to assess what has been done before and what we are going to be doing. And we thought it imperative that we had a high-level representative — and in this case, Richard Holbrooke — to be guiding that process with us.
There will be other decisions made as we go forward. But I don’t think anyone should be surprised by our willingness to engage, to be active in existing forums, to look for other ways of reaching out on behalf of this new administration.
It is clear to people here or people in Pakistan that there were strikes after President Obama was sworn in. Can you just tell us generally how you view something like that? The president talked about striking high-value targets if they were there. But is that something you may re-look at because of diplomatic problems with that?
We are looking very broadly and comprehensively at the situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan and along our borders. I have personally expressed to both (Iraq) President (Hamid) Karzai and (Pakistan) President (Asif Ali) Zardari our concern about civilian casualties. That is an area that, you know, we are following closely. And it will be as we move forward, certainly, a part of our assessment.
Excerpts from US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s press conference in Washington, January 27, 2009