Kerry heads to Mideast

By Farah Stockman, Globe Staff

WASHINGTON -- Senator John F. Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat who heads the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is leaving tonight for a trip to Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Israel, and Syria.

In Jordan, Kerry plans to attend a conference on terrorism, radical Islam, and what can be done to encourage moderate and peaceful expressions of the faith. In Lebanon, Kerry is to meet with Lebanese officials and discuss Hezbollah, a militant organization that has significant clout in the government. In Israel, Kerry plans to discuss ways to restart the peace process and rebuild Gaza after the recent war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza that killed 1,300 Palestinians.

Kerry is to meet with Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, as well as Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, head of the centrist Kadima party, and hard-line rival Benjamin Netanyahu, who both claimed victory in Israel's parliamentary elections on Tuesday. Kerry said that he would be briefed on progress towards a March 2 international aid conference that would find a way to rebuild Gaza without allowing Hamas to get the credit for it.

"It is important that Hamas not be empowered to claim that they are rebuilders," Kerry said. "On the other hand, you want to depoliticize it so that it works."

In Syria, a country that the Bush administration shunned, Kerry is to meet with Syrian President Bashar Assad.

"I will be having some frank discussions about where our relations are and where they ought to be," Kerry said, adding that he will press the Obama administration to send a new US ambassador to the country.

The United States had not had an ambassador in Syria since 2005, when Margaret Scobey was recalled following the assassination of Lebanese politician Rafiq Al-Hariri. Syrian officials are widely believed to have been behind the string of assassinations in neighboring Lebanon. But Kerry said reappointing a US ambassador to Syria would not "a punishment or a reward."

"It helps you communicate so that you are not guessing," he said. "It seems to me that it is very self-defeating not to do it."