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U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Office of the Spokesman, January 9, 2011
ON-THE-RECORD BRIEFING
Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton with Traveling Press, January 9, 2011, Ert Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, this trip is, in many ways, an important follow-up to one directly related trip and another that is equally significant but less direct. The first, of course, was a trip to Bahrain and the speech that I gave at Manama outlining our security agenda, and the countries I am visiting are all very strong partners in our security efforts, on counterterrorism, on the ongoing challenges posed by Iran, on dealing with the difficulties that we are working through as Iraq emerges into a sovereign, independent country, and so much else.
At the same time, I gave a speech in Krakow last summer in which I talked about the importance of countries including civil societies, respecting human rights, involving women, empowering their citizens, and we have been very focused on building a system following up on that speech and making clear that civil society in every country needs to be part of our engagement as well as more involved by their governments.
So in countries that I'm visiting I will be obviously meeting with leaders to continue the security dialogues that we are engaged in to talk through some of the challenges we face, but also reaching out very publicly to civil society and a lot of the activists and the NGOs that have been on the front lines working for change and a particular emphasis -- it will not surprise you -- on women and girls. So we'll be working in every one of the countries on that kind of dual track.
I'll be happy to answer your questions. I can't talk about one of the countries except off the record and embargo for security reasons. So we can have some questions on the record, but then we should go off the record and talk further. Okay?
QUESTION: Can I ask about Iran? Two questions.
QUESTION: Oh, sorry. That's the country. We can't talk about that. (Laughter.)
QUESTION: You've already had one trip where you went to deal with fallout from WikiLeaks. You are visiting a...