John Kerry: Up to Saudi Arabia to decide if women should be allowed to drive

[karynnj]

72. Note that she said that in LONDON to a group that was happy to hear it

She was Secretary of State then and traveling extensively. Did she go to Saudi Arabia and try to lobby for change? Would she have said with the Prince standing there that he needed to change the policy? We know only that it didn't happen.

Notice that Kerry did NOT change the US policy - he stated our position. Part of diplomacy is focusing on what you are trying to achieve. Kerry is working on three things that Obama listed as his top FP goals - Israel/Palestine, a diplomatic solution to Iran and to Syria. SA is a player in the region and can affect all three.

This is not to say that women's rights are not important, but that it is not clear that speaking out in front of the Prince would help the women get rights - it in fact would be more likely to hurt. (In fact, the best he could do is raise the issue privately in a non confrontational way - which I assume would have been what HRC would have done in his shoes.)

Kerry's goal was to soothe the relationship with SA that is troubled because of substantive US actions that they do not like. Things like working to have a diplomatic solution to Iran.