[An Nahar] U.S. Secretary of State John F. I was in Vietnam, you knowKerry
Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a
lucky hat,conqueror of Cambodia, and current Secretary of State...
leaves Friday on a 12-day trip during which he will return to the Middle East, hold high-level talks in Southeast Asia and make his first visit to India.
At the start of his seven-nation tour, Kerry will head first for Doha to meet with top Qatari leaders and take part in a meeting of the core ministers from the Friends of Syria group, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in a statement Wednesday.
The top U.S. diplomat will then travel to India from June 23-25 for his first official visit since taking up his post on February 1 to chair the fourth annual U.S.-India strategic dialogue.
The forum is a way of "reflecting the strong strategic partnership between our countries," Psaki said, adding they will discuss issues ranging from security and defense to science, climate change and economic ties, as well as space cooperation.
From Delhi, Kerry will travel to Soddy Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face...
to meet top Saudi officials, before heading to Kuwait City on June 26.
From June 27 to 29, the U.S. secretary of state will return to the Middle East region with a stop in Jordan before making his fifth visit to Israel to meet Israeli and Paleostinian leaders.
Kerry is trying to coax the two sides to resume negotiations frozen for almost three years, and has being pursuing what he calls "a quiet strategy" to kickstart the grinding of the peace processor.
He had been forced to postpone the trip to Israel planned for earlier this month as the U.S. administration weighed the crisis in Syria.
But in his first few months in office, he will now have visited Israel more times than his predecessor
Hillary Clinton... sometimes described as
America's Blond Eminenceand at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as
Another Al Haig...
during her whole four-year tenure.
From Jerusalem, Kerry will head to Brunei from June 30 to July 2 for meetings with Asian leaders including annual ASEAN-U.S. talks as well as the ASEAN regional forum and a foreign ministers meeting of the East Asia Summit.
He is due to return to Washington on July 2.