Seventeen years ago, Charles Lane wrote A Man of Good Intentions about then Secretary of State Warren Christopher being kept waiting by Hafez al-Assad, father of the current Syrian President:

And Assad went out of his w...

1) Middle East arms deal

The United States is concluding an arms deal with the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Israel.

Hoagland: arms deal “weaken the only containment strategy Obama consistently practiced – the containment of Israel” wapo.st/12D0xtp

— Shmuel Rosner (@rosnersdomain) April 23, 2013

The New York Times reports U.S. Arms Deal With...

John Kerry tagged team with Obama to extract a humiliating apology from Israel over the deaths of Turks who violently attacked Israeli soldiers lawfully boarding a ship breaking the lawful Gaza military blockade.

The Turks and others in the Muslim world took the apology as a sign of Israeli we...

John Kerry is not making much diplomatic progress on anything, unless you consider forcing Israel to apologize for acting lawfully in the face of aggression to be progress.

Maybe he’s been heading too many soccer balls.

MT @markhalperin: John Kerry avec soccer ball on his head, as @mitchellreports watches. twitter.com/MarkHalperin/s…

— Byron York (@ByronYork) ...

Secretary of State John Kerry made a surprise visit to Iraq to plead with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki to stop granting Iran permission to Iraqi airspace and territory.  Iran, which has a vested interest in maintaining the Syrian regime, flies arms and other material support that aid Assad.

...

Obama’s only diplomatic achievement in the Middle East has been to make Bibi Netanyahu bow down apologize to the anti-Israeli Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, as reported here yesterday, How do you say “Apologize For What?!” in Hebrew?

Knowing the insane anti-Israeli venom we have seen from Erdogan in the past, it...

Secretary of State John Kerry (go ahead, just try to type those words) is making his first overseas trip since confirmation as a member of the president’s cabinet—and as fourth, dear lord, in the line of succession.  Via Heritage:

Secretary of State John Kerry’s first overseas trip began by sending mixed signals...

John Kerry to Be Nominated to Be Secretary of State, Sources Say:

Sources tell ABC News that President Obama has decided that he will nominate Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., to be secretary of state.

If confirmed, which he will be (emphasis mine):

If nominated by the president and confirmed by his colleagues in the Senate,...