http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2006/12/12/kerry_prepares_for_middle_east_tour/?p1=MEWell_Pos4By Rick Klein, Globe Staff | December 12, 2006
Senator John F. Kerry plans to leave Wednesday for a nine-day trip through Iraq and five other Middle Eastern nations, as he seeks to hone a regional approach to ending the Iraq war while entering the final stage of his deliberations about another run for president.
Kerry said he hopes to use the regional trip, his first there in nearly year, to meet with political leaders and US troops in Iraq about solutions to the Iraq conflict. His meetings will include a session with President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, a country that the Iraq Study Group recommended should be included in direct talks about the future of Iraq.
"The Mideast policy as a whole is in tatters, and the situation is getting more dangerous, and there is a lot that's at play," said Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat. "This is the most compelling and important issue on the table today: the war on terror, how it would more properly be fought."
In addition to Iraq and Syria, Kerry will visit Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, and Israel, and he will meet with the head of state in all of those countries. He said he plans to venture outside the heavily fortified Green Zone in Baghdad to talk to US troops stationed in more volatile parts of the country, including the Sunni Triangle.
The trip comes amid intensifying debate in Washington over the future of Iraq, spurred by the Iraq Study Group's long-awaited report last week.
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