Hillary Clinton 'welcomed' to new Egypt with tomatoes, shoes and Monica rants

Hillary's motorcade pelted with tomatoes and shoes as Egyptian protesters shout 'Monica, Monica'

By DAILY MAIL
July 16, 2012

Protest: Demonstrators brandish shoes as they watch Hillary Clinton in a ceremony in Alexandria on Sunday

Hillary Clinton was targeted by protesters who threw tomatoes and their own shoes at her motorcade during a visit to Egypt on Sunday.

Demonstrators also mockingly chanted 'Monica, Monica' in reference to Bill Clinton's extra-marital affair.

The Secretary of State was on her first trip to Egypt since the election of the country's new Islamist President, Mohammed Morsi.

During the protests in Alexandria, a tomato struck an Egyptian official in the face, and shoes and a water bottle landed near the armoured cars carrying Mrs Clinton's aides.

A senior State Department official said that neither Mrs Clinton nor her vehicle, which were around the corner from the incident, were struck by any of the projectiles.

As well as the shouts of 'Monica', some demonstrators chanted, 'Leave, Clinton.'

The assault on her motorcade came on the day Mrs Clinton spoke at the newly re-opened U.S. consulate in Alexandria, addressing accusations that the U.S., which had long supported former president Hosni Mubarak, was meddling in Egyptian politics.

'I want to be clear that the United States is not in the business, in Egypt, of choosing winners and losers, even if we could, which of course we cannot,' Mrs Clinton said...

Outrage: Female protesters held up signs denouncing alleged U.S. intervention in Egyptian politics

Aggressive: Mrs Clinton was the target of protesters throwing shoes and tomatoes and chanting 'Monica'

She also met the country's top general, Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, on Sunday to discuss Egypt's turbulent democratic transition as the military wrestles for influence with the new president.

The meeting came a day after she met Mr Morsi, whose powers were clipped by the military days before he took office...

(click here to read the full article at DAILY MAIL)

Obama snubs Zardari at NATO summit for increasing transit fees for U.S. military supply trucks but has no problems killing scores of Pakistani`s via drone strikes

Obama snubs Asif Ali Zardari at NATO

Brad Norington
The Australian
May 21, 2012

Asif Ali Zardari has met the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, at the Nato summit but Obama will not sit down with Pakistan's president. Photograph: Bob Strong/Reuters

Barack Obama has snubbed Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari despite inviting him to a NATO summit in Chicago, as a bitter dispute rages over supply routes that could disrupt the planned US troop withdrawal from Afghanistan.

The US President refused to meet Mr Zardari yesterday in the midst of Pakistan’s refusal to compromise over increasing the fee for trucks to pass through its territory to Afghanistan from $US250 ($253) to $US5000.

[The fact that Zardari had to settle for a meeting with Clinton rather than the president is in itself a snub.]

Pakistan closed its borders and then demanded the huge price rise for moving US supply trucks through its territory after US air strikes killed 24 Pakistani soldiers in November.

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With $15 trillion in debt, I guess we can afford to give Tunisia $100 million in cash...

U.S. to provide $100 million debt aid to Tunisia
Al Arabiya News/ AFP
Thursday, 29 March 2012

The United States said Thursday it would grant $100 million to Tunisia to pay its debts, hoping to let the government focus on the economy and show a success in the birthplace of the Arab Spring.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Tunisia will be given 

$100 million by the United States to help pay off its debts. (Reuters) 

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the United States was also negotiating a separate package in which Washington would offer loan guarantees to raise hundreds of millions of dollars in capital for Tunisia.

Clinton, who spoke by telephone Wednesday with Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali, said the aid would let Tunisia pare down debts to the World Bank and African Development Bank left over from dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali’s 23-year regime.

The $100 million U.S. cash transfer will allow Tunisia “to instead use this money for its priority programs, accelerating economic growth and job creation,” Clinton said in a statement...

(click here to read the full article)

US warns Iran: 'Agree to talks or be bombed,' but the case for war seems set, not a "matter of if but when"

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Russian 

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, and Iranian 

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. 

Photo by Reuters and AP

Report: U.S. asked Russia to warn Iran of 'last chance' to avoid military strike
Haaretz
Published 11:58 14.03.12; Latest update 11:58 14.03.12

Clinton reportedly told her Russian counterpart to rely message to Tehran that it must engage in talks with world powers or face a military strike within months, according to Russian daily Kommersant.

The United States has asked Russia to deliver an ultimatum to Iran, warning the Islamic Republic that it has one last chance for talks before a military strike, the Kommersant daily quoted Russian diplomats as saying on Wednesday.

According to the Russian newspaper, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton asked her Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in New York on Monday to tell Tehran that it has one last chance to solve the conflict peacefully by making progress in the talks with the P5+1 group - United States, Britain, France, Russia, China, and Germany. Otherwise, an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities will occur within months, the diplomats said.

The report in Kommersant did not give further details regarding the kind of military action the U.S. was threatening, but quoted Russian diplomats at the UN as saying they believe that it is a "matter of when, not if" Israel would strike Iran's nuclear facilities.



The aircraft carrier USS Enterprise (CVN 65) (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Brooks B. Patton Jr./Released) on to Iran, RT NEWS

Last week, Clinton said that there is still space for diplomacy to resolve Iran's nuclear standoff with the West shortly after European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton announced that the P5+1 group agreed to restart talks with Iran. A time and venue of the talks has yet to be set.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a series of television interviews, said last week that an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities could take place within months.

"We're not standing with a stopwatch in hand," he said. "It's not a matter of days or weeks, but also not of years. The result must be removal of the threat of nuclear weapons in Iran's hands."

Netanyahu met with U.S. President Barack Obama last week and tried to pressure him to harden his tone on Iran.

Netanyahu told Obama that he had not yet made any decision about whether to attack Iran's nuclear facilities, though he made it clear he did not rule out such a move in the future. In statements to the press both before and after the meeting Netanyahu said Israel has the sovereign right to defend itself against Iran.