Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke about foreign policy issues at the annual US-Islamic World Forum in Doha, Qatar, reports Al-Jazeera English. The event was jointly organized by the Qatari foreign ministry and the Brookings Institution, based in Washington, DC.

In an attempt to reach out to the Gulf states and their citizens, the Secretary of State called for a new beginning in US-Middle Eastern relations. “It is time, as President Obama said in his speech in Cairo, for a new beginning based on a commitment to open dialogue and equal partnership,” she asserted. She also reiterated the US’s engagement in deepening this relationship, but called for patience from the Arab world as the results “cannot be achieved overnight.”

Clinton commented on the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and addressed the need to resume negotiations, but her speech, as well as the press conferences and question and answer sessions during the other stops of her Gulf tour, reflected the Obama administration's top priority, Iran.

According to Mark Landler at the New York Times, Clinton's aggressive pursuit for cooperation on the Iranian issue was unprecedented. “Mrs. Clinton encouraged Iran’s religious and political leaders to rise up against the Revolutionary Guards, coming as close as any senior administration official has to inviting political upheaval in the country,” he comments.

Clinton spoke of the changing political climate in Iran at a gathering of students from a Doha university. “We see that the government of Iran, the supreme leader, the president, the Parliament is being supplanted and that Iran is moving toward a military dictatorship,” she stated.

The Secretary's words were further evidence of a recent shift in the Obama administration's policy towards Iran. The administration is preparing a new, tougher set of sanctions for the Islamic Republic, to be enacted by the United Nations. The sanctions will specifically target the Revolutionary Guard, which according to Clinton has accelerated the marginalization of religious and political leaders since the 2009 Iranian presidential elections.

According to Glenn Kessler for The Washington Post, US officials said that the new UN sanctions, while targeting the elites in Iran's political society, will not have an effect on “ordinary Iranians.” Clinton's tough stance on Iran has been motivated partially by recent developments concerning Iran's nuclear program. The leadership of Iran has refused to discuss its nuclear program with other nations, cutting off the possibility of engagement with the United States. “Iran leaves the international community little choice but to impose greater costs for its provocative steps,” cautioned Clinton.

The Secretary of State also took her message to Saudi Arabia, where she met with King Abdullah and Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal.

At a conference with the Saudi Foreign Minister, Clinton declared that she hoped “the religious and political leaders of Iran act to take back the authority which they should be exercising on behalf of the people.”

In Clinton's visit to Saudi Arabia, she also pushed for the Kingdom to play a role in pressuring Beijing to agree with the new sanctions against Iran. China, a member of the UN Security Council, wields veto power. Chinese officials have been reluctant to agree with tougher sanctions on the Islamic Republic due to the nation's economic ties with Iran.

According to Al-Jazeera, US officials hinted that Saudi Arabia could help convince China “by offering Beijing guarantees it would meet Chinese oil requirements, a step that might ease Beijing's reluctance to impose further sanctions on Iran.”

For his part, Saud Al-Faisal remained to some extent hesitant about the effectiveness of sanctions against Iran, although he concedes they may work in the long term. He claimed that Saudis are anxious about the short-term consequences because they “are [geographically] closer to the threat.”

Saud Al-Faisal added that Chinese officials “need no suggestion from Saudi Arabia to do what they ought to do.”

The Secretary of State also spoke with female Saudi students at Dar Al-Hekma College. According to another article by Mark Landler at The New York Times, the students asked Clinton about Israel, Iran, and even the domestic health-care reform debate in the US. Declining to comment directly about Israel, Clinton continued to criticize Iran, identifying it as the “world's largest supporter of terrorism” and a threat to Saudi Arabia.