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Summary The US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton is set to leave his post soon.
The US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton is sticking to her decision to step down from her post and not continue in the second term of president Obama. This was revealed by the State Department spokesperson, Victoria Nuland during a briefing in Washington, DC on Wednesday.Secretary Clintons plans to step down have not changed. She plans to see through the transition and then move to the private life, she informed while insisting that her remarks during an interview a few days hinting at a possible change of mind were not accurate and had been taken out of context.The US media is abuzz these days with speculations on the regarding the potential successors of Secretary Clinton, who has won plaudits for her diplomacy as one of the most effective and articulate Secretary of State of the US. These will be some big shoes to fill considering the foreign policy challenges faced by the Obama administration while moving forward.The names of the current Chairman of the US Senates Foreign Relations Committee, John Kerry and US permanent representative to the UN, Susan Rice have been touted as the front-runners for the new Secretary of State, unless the President is thinking about springing a surprise.Senator Kerry is one of the most senior Senators of the Democratic party and has become one of the most recognized US foreign policy interlocutors around the globe whereas the relatively young Susan Rice has been groomed as the troubleshooter on important foreign policy issues from an important platform like the UN.Secretary Clinton has repeatedly said that she does not intend to continue as Secretary of State and wants to retire to a private life after decades of public service as the first lady, Senator and the Secretary of State. She was roped in for the job after the 2008 elections despite losing the Democratic presidential nominee bid to Barack Obama in 2008.There are some observers who insist that Clintons decision to step aside is tactical and she is likely to return to the political arena with another bid to the White House in 2016. She is believed to make a heavyweight candidate if these speculations become the reality in four years time.- Contributed by Awais Saleem, Dunya News correspondent in Washington, DC
