The world isn’t making Hillary Clinton’s life any easier.

The secretary of state held a press conference yesterday to discuss Iran, which, she says, she intends to deal with diplomatically. To a point. "President Obama has signaled his intention to support tough and direct diplomacy with Iran, but if Iran does not comply with the UNSC and the IAEA mandate, there must be consequences," Clinton said on Tuesday. And, as is their style, Iranian officials won’t be making Clinton’s job any easier — the state media reported yesterday that Iran launched its first domestically manufactured satellite into orbit, raising fresh concern that Iran’s looking to launch long-range missiles.

Besides the Middle East, Eastern Europe also has Washington worried.

Russia seems poised to expand its reach into former Soviet nations to curb the United States’ influence in the resource-rich region. Today, at a summit of the Moscow-dominated Collective Security Treaty Organization, Russia, Armenia, Belarus and four Central Asian nations — Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan — agreed to set up what’s being described as a "joint rapid reaction force." The move would boost the military dimension to the alliance, which, until now, has served mostly as a forum for security consultations. The AP reports:

The move would boost the military dimension to the alliance, which until now has served mostly as a forum for security consultations. The force is expected to consist of about 10,000 men and function under a central command. The alliance now has a rapid reaction force of about 3,000, but it is not under unified command. Kremlin foreign policy adviser Sergei Prikhodko said Russian paratroopers would form the core of the force. Russia’s envoy to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin, said Wednesday that Kyrgyzstan may host some of the newly formed rapid reaction forces at the base currently leased by the U.S. military.

Both Kyrgyzstan’s Bakiyev and Russia’s Dmitry Medvedev stressed that they would continue cooperating with Washington on Afghanistan. "No one is trying to evade responsibility," said Medvedev, who was also at yesterday’s press conference. "But the forms of cooperation are to be agreed with partners."

The U.S. military base in question, Manas Air Base, is a key supply center for U.S. troops in Afghanistan. Moscow has lately become worried that the Western conduct of the operation has only increased instability in Afghanistan. Medvedev has suggested that Russia, China and their Central Asian allies should have a stronger say in efforts to restore peace in the war-torn nation. Meanwhile, the most recent actions could be looked at as a nasty blow. 

"One could not have chosen a worst moment for such move," Alexei Malashenko of Carnegies Endowment for Peace think tank said.

Secretary Clinton definitely has her hands full.