Hillary's trip to Pakistan: "It did not appear to go well"

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made an unannounced trip to Pakistan to meet with President Asif Ali Zardari and other senior officials on Friday, a move U.S. officials say was designed to gauge the state of the uneasy alliance between the two nations.

As the New York Times puts it: “It did not appear to go well.”

Press opportunities were few and far between during Clinton’s short trip to Islamabad, but when reporters did get a look at the interaction between Clinton and Zardari there was plenty of awkwardness and few smiles.

The Washington Post with the some-what-limited play-by-play:

At the presidential palace, with only a camera crew allowed to briefly witness the greeting with no sound recording, a grim-faced Clinton was heard repeating what she said was President Obama’s “strong support for the relationship and our commitment to working with and support for Pakistan, and the recognition of the sacrifice that is made ... by your country” in fighting terrorism.

Clinton had originally been scheduled to visit Pakistan earlier this month, but that trip was called off to give the U.S. more time to assess Pakistan’s reaction to the raid that killed Osama Bin Laden.

U.S. officials say that Friday’s meetings were kept under wraps prior the trip for security reasons. But the timing comes one day after Pakistan granted the CIA permission to send a team of forensic experts into the compound where Bin Laden was killed, a decision that was seen as a signal that frosty Pakistan-U.S. relations may be beginning to thaw.

After Friday’s meeting with Zardari, Clinton spoke with reporters at the U.S. embassy with no Pakistani officials present.

“There is always a lot to talk about but this was an especially important meeting because we have reached a turning point,” she said. “Osama Bin Laden is dead but al-Qaida and its syndicate of terror remain a threat to us both.”