Clinton Hits Another Diplomatic Snag on Mideast Tour

Hillary Clinton continued her diplomatic spree in the Middle East on Monday, meeting with Arab heads of state in Morocco, and she once again found herself revisiting, and perhaps revising, her words when she read a statement qualifying a comment she’d made last weekend about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Her last self-edit moment happened after she publicly expressed puzzlement over the Pakistani government’s professed lack of knowledge as to the whereabouts of key al-Qaida leaders believed to be hiding in their country.  —KA

The New York Times:

Struggling to stem a chorus of protests from the Arab world, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton reiterated Monday that the Obama administration still wanted Israel to freeze construction of Jewish settlements, even if it regarded Israel’s compromise offer as “unprecedented.”

Arab leaders have expressed alarm that the United States seems to be decreasing pressure on Israel, after Mrs. Clinton said in Jerusalem on Saturday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s proposal of restrained settlement construction was better than what any previous Israeli government had offered.

Mrs. Clinton said the administration would not stop pushing Mr. Netanyahu to do more. But she added that in trying to revive a stalled peace process, she wanted to offer Israel encouragement for moving in the right direction, even if that movement fell short of what the United States wanted.

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AP Photo/Abdeljalil Bounhar

From right to left: Bahraini Foreign Minister Sheik Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Deputy Prime Minister of Kuwait Sheikh Mohammad Al-Salem Al-Sabah, and Foreign Minister of Saudi Arabia Prince Saud Al Faisal attend a meeting at the Palmeraie Golf Palace in Marrakech, Morocco on Monday.