NEW YORK—In her first media appearance since her defeat in the US presidential elections, Hillary Clinton appeared on CNN on Wednesday in a special interview where she tackled a number of issues, including women’s rights, the tensions in the Korean Peninsula and the conflict in Syria.
Clinton praised Women for Women International, a non-profit organization, for their efforts in conflict zones to support women’s rights, “to give women a voice, to give women job training, to give women access to markets, to try to ensure that women are represented when there are conversations about peace and the violence that affects their community or their nation,” she told CNN’s Christian Amanpour..
She said the organization has made real progress in promoting equality for women globally. In reference to president Donald Trump’s plans to increase military spending, Clinton said “I am going to publicly request that this administration not end our efforts to making women’s rights and opportunities central to American foreign policy and national security,” addressing the severe proposed budget cuts to the State Department as well as women’s platforms created or championed by the former first lady.
Clinton said sexism and misogyny existed in America as in everywhere else in the world and that it played against her bid for the US presidency.
“Yes, I do think it played a role. I think other things did as well,” suggesting that the interference from a foreign power “whose leader is not a member of my fan club” played a role in Trump’s victory.
On North Korea where tensions have been brewing in recent weeks, Clinton said: “First of all, there has to be a regional effort to incentivize the North Korean regime to understand that it will pay a much bigger price regionally, primarily from China, if it pursues this reckless policy of nuclear weapons development.”
She thought that America alone could not put enough pressure on the regime to end its nuclear program.
Asked if she supported the US cruise missile attack on Syria last month, and if she thought they worked to deter the Assad regime, Clinton said that even though she supported the strikes, she didn’t publicly announce her support since it wasn’t her role to do so.
She added: “I am not convinced that it really made much of a difference and if it was in fact a one-off effort, it’s not going to have much of a lasting effect.”
She acknowledged that Syria is another one of those “wicked problems” which everyone is desperately trying to figure out on how to stop the civil war.
Clinton also said she was concerned about how the international community could prevent Iran from increasing its influence in the region, how to prevent Russia from having a real foothold in the Middle East and what role Turkey will play later on in the conflict. “There are lots that this strike really had nothing to do with that are critical issues that still have to be addressed,” she said.
from Rudaw http://ift.tt/2pLUgye
via Defense News
No comments: