(John Kerry in Jerusalem/Wikimedia)

Kerry’s first meeting is with Sultan Qaboos bin Said al-Said in Oman, Syria, to try and persuade the leader to a cease-fire agreement with his regime and the opposition. The United Nations estimates that over 70,000 people have been killed over the past two years. 

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President Barack Obama has been under mounting pressure from U.S. lawmakers to arm opposition forces in Syria. Both Democrat and Republican Senators are pushing the President to help end the civil war and remove Syrian President Bashar al-Assad from power after the United Nations and other sources confirmed the use of chemical weapons, though the White House said it needed "more specific information" before launching a military attack.

After Syria, Kerry will travel to Jordan to gather with 10 of America's closest European and Arab partners to discuss how to advance a political transition and end more than two years of bloodshed in Syria, before traveling on to Israel, ABC News reported.

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There he will visit Jerusalem and the West Banks for meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas to hold peace talks that have been paused for over two years. He also will travel to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, for an African Union conference.
 
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