No to hot dog diplomacy!

Friday, June 26th, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton meet with Bahraini Crown Prince Sheikh Salman bin Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa at the State Department. They were doing the lefthanded handshake because of Hillary's cast.

After this meeting, Hillary headed over to the White House to attend the President’s expanded bilateral, joint press availability and working lunch for Her Excellency Angela Merkel, Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany at the White House.

I love the black framed glasses, the sling, and the Secretary's "official arm rest pillow."

After, the meeting the President and the German Chancellor urged Iran to end violence against protesters and underscored their commitment to prevent the Islamic state from developing a nuclear weapon.

Merkel called the crisis playing out on the streets of Iran “horrifying”, while Obama refused to give in to Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s demand for an apology for allegedly interfering in the elections and subsequent mass protests.

“I don’t take Mr Ahmadinejad’s statements seriously about apologies, particularly given the fact that the United States has gone out of its way not to interfere with the election process in Iran... I would suggest that Mr Ahmadinejad think carefully about the obligations he owes to his own people... And he might want to consider looking at the families of those who’ve been beaten or shot or detained.”

Merkel emphasised that universal rights of freedom of expression should apply to Iranian citizens and called on the government to respect human rights.

“The Iranian people need to be given the right to peaceful demonstrations, the Iranian people have the right to have their votes counted and the election results substantiated."

Earlier this week, Secretary Clinton ordered all U.S. embassies and consular missions to rescind July 4 Independence Day party invitations sent to Iranian diplomats. When it comes to Iran, Clinton is putting and end to the "hot dog" diplomacy.

This whole hot dog thing was an attempt by President Obama to reach out to Iran with a classically American invitation: celebrate July 4 with hot dogs and hale fellowship at United States embassies worldwide.

On Wednesday, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who had authorized diplomatic posts earlier this month to invite Iranians to their Independence Day parties, sent out a cable rescinding the invitations.

“Unfortunately, circumstances have changed, and participation by Iranian diplomats would not be appropriate in light of the unjust actions that the president and I have condemned.”

Embassies that had already invited Iranian diplomats were instructed to disinvite them. The State Department spokesman, Ian C. Kelly, said he was not aware of a single diplomat who had R.S.V.P.’d, anywhere in the world sooo, not so sure that the Iranians were up for the celebrations anyways.

Robert Gibbs, White House press Secretary, said, “July 4 allows us to celebrate the freedom and the liberty we enjoy: freedom of speech, freedom of liberty, freedom to assemble peacefully, freedom of the press. So I don’t think it’s surprising that nobody has signed up to come.”