US Secretary of State John Kerry departed late Friday to Egypt and Qatar for a round of diplomatic talks, where the Secretary hopes to ease Gulf countries’ concerns about the Iran nuclear deal. The trip will not include a stop in Israel, according to reports.
Today, Secretary Kerry will travel to Doha to meet with his counterparts from Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member states. “The main purpose of that meeting will be to allay fears they have about Iran, following the nuclear deal signed on July 14 in Vienna,” the AFP reports via the Saudi Gazette.
Secretary Kerry is visiting Gulf states this week as part of a wide-ranging diplomatic push in the region.
Secretary Kerry will meet separately and directly with Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov and Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir as part of a three-way meeting. According to Reuters, the visit is to discuss “peace moves in Syria, Yemen and Libya, international consolidation against Islamic State, stability in the Persian Gulf, and bilateral relations between Russia and Qatar.”
Secretary Kerry reassured Egypt about the Iran deal and will do the same in Qatar for Gulf allies.
“There can be absolutely no question that if the Vienna plan, fully implemented, it will make Egypt and all the countries of this region safer than they otherwise would be or were,” Kerry said in Cairo at the beginning of a Middle East tour.”
