U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is making his fourth trip to the Middle East in the last two months with hopes of securing a peace deal between Palestine and Israel, figuring out some sort of solution in Syria and to broker an arms deal with Oman.
Kerry's efforts with the Israelis and Palestinians have yet to yield much besides both sides agreeing to refrain from any action to make the situation worse, according to The Guardian. The Palestinians have everything in place and are ready to join the United Nations but have held off on applying in order to give the latest peace effort a chance, the chief Palestinian negotiator, Saeb Erakat, told the Washington Post.
"We are exerting every possible effort to see that Mr. Kerry succeeds," Erakat said. "No one benefits more from the success of Mr. Kerry than Palestinians and no one loses more from his failure than Palestinians."
Like many of the past peace agreements, a crucial element of this deal would be for Israel to agree to pull out of some of their settlements in disputed territories, a move that Israel seems unwilling to make. Last week, Israel was accused of attempting to legalize four disputed settlements in the West Bank, according to the Washington Post.
Kerry starts his trip in Oman where he hopes to gain some insight into how to involve Iran in peace talks to end the blood Syrian civil way which has killed more than 80,000 people, according to Reuters. A senior state department official thinks that Kerry's meeting with Oman's Sultan Qaboos bin Said, the Arab world's longest serving ruler, will help give the Secretary of State an idea of how the region feels about peace process.
"It's basically a chance to do a signals check with an important ally," the state department official said. "Oman is not a key player on Syria but, as an important player in the Gulf, I think it will be good to hear the sultan's views on the situation in the region writ large."
In addition to getting the sultan's opinion on Iran, Kerry will help broker a major arms deal with the U.S. ally. Oman is expected to sign a letter of intent to purchase $2.1 billion worth of defensive missile systems from U.S. arms manufacturer Raytheon, according to Reuters.
The U.S. and Russia have announced that they hope peace talks involving both sides of the Syrian conflict can take place as early as June, possible in Geneva, according to Reuters. Much of Kerry's trip will be spent laying the groundwork necessary for those talks to proceed.
