Secretary of State John Kerry is en route to Saudi Arabia now for his second visit to the Kingdom since the start of 2016.
Secretary of State John Kerry will travel March 11 to Hafar al Batin, Saudi Arabia to meet with senior government officials to discuss a variety of topics, including efforts to resolve the crises in Syria and Yemen, as well as other regional security issues, according to the State Department.
Hafar al-Batin is located in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia, roughly 50 miles from Saudi Arabia’s borders with Kuwait and Iraq. That is where leaders from over 20 nations convened this week to observe a massive set of military drills in operation “Northern Thunder.” The drills were focused on how to coordinate combat operations and guerrilla warfare tactics “among the Muslim-majority countries that are members of 34-nation counter-terrorism Islamic alliance announced by the Kingdom in December,” according to the Saudi Gazette.
Kerry last visited Riyadh in late January. During that visit, Kerry met with a group of business leaders from the U.S. and Saudi Arabia as part of the ongoing U.S.-Saudi CEO Summit series of events.
Following his trip to Saudi Arabia, Secretary Kerry will travel to Paris.
On February 8th, Secretary Kerry and Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir gave joint remarks from the Treaty Room at the State Department.
During that press conference, Secretary Kerry thanked King Salman and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia “for their solid efforts to help deal with the coalition against Daesh, their commitment recently of a willingness to put troops into that fight also, and there are many steps that we have taken with the GCC countries that are very critical to the ongoing security of the region.”
“We have a tremendous stake in stability and peace and security in the region,” Al Jubeir said. “We have a tremendous stake in trying to resolve the problems in the region before they consume all of us. We are determined to work with our allies in the United States and our allies around the world to bring this about, whether it is in the war against terrorism, whether it is in trying to stabilize the Middle East, whether it’s in trying to begin a political transition in Syria, implementing 2254, whether it’s in bringing peace between Israelis and Palestinians, peace to Yemen.”
Kerry and Al-Jubeir enjoy a close working and personal relationship, often referring to each other as “my friend” in joint statements and noting often that the two have known each other for a long time, since Al-Jubeir was starting off in the Saudi foreign service and Kerry was a Senator from Massachusetts.
