Clinton makes unannounced visit to Afghanistan

by lexie Wed Oct 19, 2011 4:37 pm

Wednesday, October 19, 2:01 PM

Clinton makes unannounced visit to Afghanistan

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is in Afghanistan on an unannounced visit aimed at encouraging the country’s wary leadership to keep up Taliban reconciliation efforts as the Obama administration presses ahead with troop withdrawal plans, the Associated Press reported Wednesday.

KABUL — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton arrived in the Afghan capital Wednesday on an unannounced visit intended to boost faltering reconciliation efforts ahead of the planned withdrawal of NATO forces.

Clinton, who traveled to Kabul on the heels of visits to Libya and Oman, was scheduled to meet Thursday with President Hamid Karzai and other government and parliamentary leaders. Her trip comes at a time of increased tensions between U.S. and Afghan officials over how to pursue peace with the radical Islamist Taliban movement after a decade-long insurgency.

1The Afghan government’s reconciliation efforts were dealt a severe setback last month when a suicide bomber assassinated Burhanuddin Rabbani, the leader of Afghanistan’s High Peace Council and the government’s point man in talks with the Taliban. The widely respected Rabbani, an Islamic scholar and former president, had been in contact with both Taliban and Afghan tribal leaders about a possible power-sharing arrangement after the departure of NATO troops. Rabbani was killed at his home by a man who concealed a bomb under a skull cap while posing as a Taliban peace emissary. His death has spread despair among some Afghan officials over whether an accord with the Taliban is possible.

Clinton also will seek to nudge Karzai on a proposed bilateral agreement on security cooperation that would take effect after the withdrawal of most U.S. troops, aides said. The Obama administration plans to withdraw by late next year all of the 33,000 U.S. “surge” troops that were deployed to Afghanistan in 2010, and to turn over security for most of the country to the Kabul government by 2014.

Clinton landed in Kabul after paying a visit to the sultan of Oman earlier Wednesday to thank him for helping to secure the release of U.S. hikers from Iran last month and appeal to Arabs to further ratchet up the pressure on Iran.

In Oman, Clinton held talks with Sultan Qaboos bin Said in his lavish palace in the capital of the tiny state on the Arabian Peninsula. The meeting came a week after explosive revelations of an alleged Iranian plot to kill an ambassador from Saudi Arabia, Oman’s neighbor and close ally.

The Obama administration is seeking to use the plot to rally support from Arab governments for further isolating Iran diplomatically and economically.

“We’re sending out worldwide messages now that are tailored to each country,” a senior State Department official told reporters traveling with Clinton, “asking them to use their relations with Iran in way to really focus the Iranians on the risks they face based on this type of behavior.”

Clinton, a day after meeting with leaders of Libya’s transitional government in Tripoli, arrived at the elaborately tiled Omani palace Wednesday morning. She was greeted by the silver-haired sultan, who wore a traditional Omani robe and turban. The two then met privately, with an interpreter, in a red-paneled reception room.

Oman, a member of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council, traditionally maintains good relations with Iran and has helped mediate conflicts with the Islamic Republic in the past. Omani officials interceded with Iranian leaders last year to secure the release of American hiker Sarah Shourd, and were influential last month in persuading Iran to free Joshua Fattal and Shane Bauer. The three were backpacking in an unmarked area along the Iran-Iraq border in July 2009 when they were arrested by Iranian security officials on suspicion of spying.

Clinton personally thanked Qaboos on behalf of the administration and discussed how Gulf countries could use their influence to dissuade Iran from seeking nuclear weapons and supporting terrorist groups.

“We hope the Omanis will use their relations with Iran, as they have in the past, to help the Iranians understand the risks of what they’re doing,” said the senior State Department official, who insisted on anonymity in keeping with diplomatic protocol.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/2011/10/19/gIQAoo9RxL_story.html