Clinton tells Iowans Iran sanctions getting results

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.

In early-caucusing Iowa, the three major Democratic hopefuls are in a tight race. The war, going on its fifth year, is a top issue for voters in the state as well as nationally, according to polls.

“We need aggressive diplomacy and economic pressure, which is why I support sanctions on Iran,” said Obama earlier this month. “Those efforts must not be linked to the use of our military presence in Iraq and the region, because we have seen what this administration does when you trust them to do the right thing but give them an opening to do the wrong thing.”

Critics of the Bush administration have said the White House is laying the foundation for another war, in part by blaming Iran for problems in Iraq.

On Saturday, Clinton said she was opposed to “a rush to war” with Iran and was open to negotiations.

“Now their ambassador and our ambassador are going to start talking again. That’s exactly what I want. I want everybody at the table,” she said. “But when you go to negotiate, you have to bring some sticks and you have to bring some carrots.”

--

louise.roug@latimes.com