US Secretary of State meets UK counterpart Miliband
(NECN) – US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was in London on Sunday where she met British Foreign Secretary David Miliband in the morning, on the second leg of her five-day European trip. Afghanistan was likely to dominate Clinton’s visit to London, where support for military operations in the country has waned in recent months amid rising violence and allegations of major fraud in the Afghan national elections in August. Later on Sunday Clinton will meet British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Clinton left for Europe late on Friday for a five day trip in which Iran, Afghanistan and arms control were expected to be the main subjects of discussion. On Saturday she was in Zurich, Switzerland, where she witnessed the signing of a historic pact between Turkey and Armenia to normalise relations after a century of enmity. She will also visit Ireland and Russia. During her visit to Moscow, Clinton planned to press for a strong commitment from Russia for tough new sanctions against Iran. US officials said Iran will be a main topic of discussion when Clinton meets Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Tuesday. Russia and China have long balked at imposing new sanctions on Iran if it failed to come clean about its nuclear program, but Medvedev hinted the Russian position might be shifting after Tehran disclosed a previously secret uranium enrichment site near the holy city of Qom. But US officials believe it will be a hard sell to convince the Russians on fresh penalties since Iran has agreed to allow UN inspectors to visit the Qom site and has agreed, in principle, to send most of its low-enriched uranium to Russia for reprocessing. Iran agreed to allow inspections of the Qom site following talks last week between Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator and diplomats from the US, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany. The Iranians were given time to decide whether to accept a package of incentives in exchange for Iran’s compliance with international demands to suspend its uranium enrichment or face new sanctions. The Obama administration is anxious not to let up on the pressure and Clinton will be looking for Russian expressions of support for sanctions and other penalties should Iran continue to refuse by the end of the year, the officials said. In addition to Iran, Clinton will bring a wide array of other issues to Moscow, including arms control, missile defense and cooperation on convincing North Korea to abandon nuclear weapons, the officials said. In Ireland, Clinton will be visiting Dublin in the Republic of Ireland and Belfast in Northern Ireland, where she is expected to push for a break in the deadlock between Northern Ireland’s rival Catholic and Protestant leaders over transferring responsibility for Northern Ireland’s justice system from British to local hands.
