A Palestinian motorist rammed his vehicle into a group of Israeli soldiers at a West Bank checkpoint on Tuesday, wounding three, the military said, as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry arrived for his first visit in more than a year on a mission to try and calm two months of deadly violence. The hopes are to get talks moving toward a political transition in Syria that eventually would unseat Assad.
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The U.S. today called for stepping up “pace of actions” to destroy the Islamic State by escalating military, counter-terrorism and diplomatic efforts.
Assad has been supported militarily by Iran and Russian Federation, which has carryied out eight weeks of air strikes in Syria.
SECRETARY KERRY: Now, we have every single effort being made by Homeland Security, by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, by Interpol, by intelligence communities exchanging information, and people are working hard at this.
The meeting was also attended by Dr Anwar Bin Mohammed Gargash, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Ali Mohammad Hammad Al Shamsi, Deputy Secretary-General of the Supreme National Security Council, Khaldoon Khalifa Al Mubarak, Chairman of Abu Dhabi Executive Affairs Authority (EAA), Yousef Al Otaiba, UAE Ambassador to the United States, Mohammed Mubarak Al Mazrouei, Undersecretary of the Court of the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Barbara A. Leaf, Ambassador of the United States to the UAE, and a number of officials.
The talks took place in Mina Palace, a compound next to the Persian Gulf where peacocks, doves and pelicans strutted on manicured lawns around sunken gardens with fountains and palms. He is set to meet with Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir later in the day.
Saudi Arabia, an important US ally in the region, next month will host talks between Syria’s fractious opposition groups, aimed at unifying them ahead of mediated discussions between Mr. Assad and his opponents in January. Ahrar al-Sham is supported by the Saudis and Qataris, but it has been known to fight with the militants against Assad.
“People are traveling all over the world, even from the United States, to fight in Syria”, Kerry told Guthrie. But it was too soon to make a determination.
France is a member of the U.S.-led coalition that has been bombing Islamic State targets in Iraq and Syria since past year. “I’d like to see us go faster”, he said.
ISIS is not 10 feet tall.
“People need to not panic”, he added. Kerry arrival in Israel coincides with the burial of Ezra Schwartz, an 18-year-old from MA, who was killed by a Palestinian in a drive-by shooting last week.
Kerry says Obama is asking everyone in his government to offer new ideas to eliminate IS.
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“The president, to have a successful strategy, is going to admit that they’ve got it wrong, and they need to relook at a larger strategy that deals with North Africa, the Middle East, all the way to Afghanistan, Pakistan, and then work closely with our NATO allies with what appears to be a command and control structure that ISIS has created successfully in Europe”, the California Republican said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union”. “They’re in the mood for being tough and stopping it”.
