Kerry consults KSA, UAE and Jordan

There was an interesting meeting of heads in Paris on 26 June, as US secretary of state John Kerry, on a 22-27 June tour of Europe and the Middle East, grappled with the task of formulating an appropriate US policy on Iraq’s latest crisis. Kerry met with Saudi foreign minister Saud Al-Faisal, UAE foreign minister Abdullah Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan and Jordanian foreign minister Nasser Judeh; it was a small meeting by Gulf standards, with just the foreign ministers plus “about one staffer per minister”, a senior state department official said, and lasted around two hours.