Briefing Skipper: China, Iran, Pakistan, Egypt, Hamas

Briefing Skipper: China, Iran, Pakistan, Egypt, Hamas: "

In which we scour the transcript of the State
Department's daily presser so you don't have to. These are the highlights of
Monday's briefing by spokesman Mark Toner:

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  Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner kicked off the U.S.-China Security and Economic
  Dialogue in Washington Monday, but don't expect a lot of those pesky "deliverables"
  that everybody's talking about these days. And one member of the State
  Department press corps pointed out that while the Obama administration would
  only provide officials to talk about the dialogue anonymously, the Chinese held
  three briefings on the record.
  


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  Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Monday predicted a resumption of the P5+1 talks
  over its nuclear program, but toner said there's nothing to announce yet. "And as we've said often, there's two
  tracks here and the door does remain open. But if we have anything to confirm,
  we'll get back to you" he said.
  


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  Responding
  to Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza
  Gilani's promise that any future raids inside his country would be met
  with force, Toner said that there very well could be more raids inside his country.
  "Whenever we do have actionable
  intelligence against someone who's responsible for thousands of American and
  other deaths, other nationalities, we're going to take action, and feel it's
  within our right to do so," said Toner. Gilani also said the Pakistani
  government was innocent. Toner said the U.S. will wait for the results of the
  investigations.
  


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  On Egypt, Toner said that the United
  States "strongly condemns the senseless sectarian violence and destruction that
  took place in Imbaba
  and other neighborhoods of Cairo, including the destructive attacks on
  churches, and just say that an attack on a religious institution or site is --
  irrespective of religion, is abhorrent." The U.S. is considering $1 billion of
  debt relief for Egypt, but no final decisions have yet been made. "It's too
  early. We're not there yet," Toner said.
  


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  As
  for the Palestinian unity government that's in the works, Toner said that it was important any deal between Fattah and
  Hamas include a path to peace with Israel but he also said it was hard to judge
  because the details of the deal still aren't clear. "I think we're waiting to see what this thing looks like," he
  said. "As the new Palestinian government's formed, we'll assess it based on its
  policies and we'll determine the implications for our assistance."
  

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