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Los Angeles TimesThe Democratic hopeful says Tehran is negotiating, and her vote helped it happen. Her rivals see danger.
By Louise Roug, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
November 25, 2007
SAC CITY, IOWA -- Campaigning in northwestern Iowa on Saturday, Hillary Rodham Clinton told voters that a Senate resolution on Iran she supported has helped bring that country to the negotiating table while stemming the violence in Iraq. Clinton said tougher economic sanctions have been "a contributing factor to Iranians' backing off." Though brief, Clinton's remarks were also a rare acknowledgment of progress in Iraq.
The New York senator, who in national polls leads the field of Democratic nominees for president, made the comments during a question-and-answer session in Sac City. Clinton said the September Senate resolution on Iran had been "a stick and a carrot" for negotiations. "Since the sanctions were imposed on the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, we are resuming talks with Iran," Clinton said. "Iranians have stopped sending improvised explosive devices into Iraq to be used against our soldiers. They have backed off from sending a lot of their agents into Iraq."
The September vote, a "Sense of the Senate" resolution sponsored by Sens. John Kyl (R-Ariz.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), declared the Iranian Revolutionary Guard a "terrorist organization" and called for the administration to press ahead with sanctions. Clinton has since come under fire for the vote, which critics -- notably Democratic rival Illinois Sen. Barack Obama -- have described as raising the specter of war with Iran. At the time of the vote on the resolution, Obama was away campaigning but said if he had been present he would have voted against it. Other Democratic presidential candidates in the Senate, Delaware's Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Connecticut's Christopher J. Dodd, voted against it.
The intertwined issue of Iran and Iraq is thorny for Clinton, who -- like former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards -- voted to authorize the invasion of Iraq. Unlike Edwards, she has not backed down from her 2002 vote. Obama voted against authorizing the Iraq war....
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