Kerry to travel to Oman, Mideast next week

US Secretary of State John Kerry will travel to Oman, Jordan, Jerusalem, Ramallah and Addis Ababa next week where he will be meeting senior officials, it was announced here. The State Department said in a statement, late on Friday, that Kerry will travel May 21 to Muscat, where he will meet with senior Omani officials to discuss a range of bilateral and regional issues. On May 22, Kerry will visit Amman, where he will meet with "key international partners to further explore ways that the international community can work towards bringing together both sides of the conflict and developing a path toward a negotiated political solution to the crisis in Syria." Kerry will then travel to Jerusalem and Ramallah on May 23-24. The Holy City, he will meet with Israeli leaders, and in Ramallah he will hold talks with the Palestinian leadership. "These meetings are to follow up on ongoing discussions as we continue to assess how best we can support the parties in getting back to the table and in having dialogue leading to peace," the statement affirmed. It stressed "we remain committed to working with the parties to achieve a lasting peace through direct negotiations." Kerry will then travel May 24-25 to Addis Ababa, where he will meet with senior Ethiopian officials to discuss bilateral issues and participate in the Golden Jubilee of the Organization of African Unity at the African Union Summit. He will also meet with African leaders attending the summit "to discuss a range of regional, transnational, and country-specific topics." "On May 26, Secretary Kerry will depart Addis Ababa and return to Amman, where he will participate in the World Economic Forum," the statement noted.