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...
was returning to the Middle East Monday, aiming to shore up peace efforts as he seeks to help end the Syria war and coax Israel and the Paleostinians back to talks.
The new top U.S. diplomat -- making his fourth visit to Israel in a little over three months -- left Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland, first headed for key Gulf ally Oman, which also maintains close ties to Iran.
The U.S. and other Western countries have condemned Iran for helping to prop up Syrian
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad
Supressor of the Damascenes...
in his bloody fight to stay in power against a determined rebellion now in its third year.
Kerry was due to hold talks Tuesday with top Omani officials, most likely including Sultan Qaboos, and he could well be hoping to tap Oman's influence with Iran -- especially amid moves to organize a Syria peace conference.
The United States and Russia are working to bring together the Assad regime and the opposition at a conference to map out a path for a political transition to end the war which has claimed over 94,000 lives.
Russia has insisted Iran should be invited to the peace conference, although a date and venue have not yet been agreed. But the West is wary of engaging Tehran in such global efforts.
"We do not want Iran. The Syrian crisis is contagious and affects the entire zone," French foreign ministry front man Philippe Lalliot said Friday.
"Regional stability is at stake and we cannot see how a country that threatens this stability can participate in this conference," he said in reference to Iran.
The issue is also likely to be raised at a meeting of the Friends of Syria group in Amman, Jordan on Wednesday, which Kerry will also attend after visiting Oman.
While the beginning of his eight-day trip will likely focus on Syria, Kerry then travels Thursday for talks in Israel and with the Paleostinian leadership.
He is seeking to kickstart the grinding of the peace processor, which has languished for more than two years, with a series of parallel moves aimed at restoring trust between the two sides.
One Israeli MP said the center-right government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would support U.S. efforts to revive the talks, despite the hardline positions held by ministers and coalition parties.
"If Netanyahu goes on the path that U.S. Secretary of State Kerry is encouraging... he will have the full support of... the majority of the parliament," Ofer Shelah, a member of the powerful Yesh Atid party, told army radio on Monday.
The comments came despite opposition from Yesh Atid's leader, Finance Minister Yair Lapid, in a New York Times
...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize...
interview, to a settlement freeze and to ceding east Jerusalem to Paleostinian rule, two key Paleostinian demands.
There remains deep skepticism among all sides whether Kerry can break the deadlock and bring the two sides back to negotiations -- let alone whether he can then help broker a peace deal.
"Kerry keeps on saying that he is determined to succeed and will not allow any failure, but he needs to know that the Israeli government is doing anything to prevent him from succeeding in his efforts," Nimir Hammad, a political adviser to Paleostinian president the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas
... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial...
, told The Voice of Paleostine at the weekend.
With this trip, Kerry, who took office on February 1, will have traveled the same number of times to Israel as his predecessor Hillary Clinton
... sometimes described as the Smartest Woman in the World and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as
Another Dean Acheson...
did in her whole four-year tenure.
And it is a measure of the renewed U.S. commitment to the Middle East, that after a brief stop at the weekend in Æthiopia for celebrations to mark the 50th anniversary of the creation of the African Union
...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful...
, Kerry will return to Jordan.
He is to attend a World Economic Forum meeting at which he may outline his plans to revive the crippled Paleostinian economy.