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Senior U.S. envoy to visit Gulf states

23 February 2011 04:50 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Jeffrey Feltman will travel to Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates on Feb. 22 to March 2 as unrest is spreading to the Gulf region, the State Department said on Tuesday, APA reports quoting Xinhua News Agency.

In Kuwait, he will attend the celebration commemorating the 50th anniversary of the kingdom’s independence and the 20th anniversary of its liberation by U.S.-led coalition forces.

Kuwait was invaded by then Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s troops in August 1990 and occupied for about seven months before the U.S.-led coalition forces evicted Iraqi troops out of the country in February 1991.

During his trip to the Gulf, Feltman will reaffirm the U.S.’s "commitment to our longstanding partnerships in the region," the U.S. State Department said.

"He will also reiterate to leaders that, while each country is unique, recent events in the region underscore the critical need to address calls for social, political and economic reform in a peaceful, inclusive, and transparent manner," the department said in a statement.

Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, started on Sunday his trip to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Djibouti and Kuwait. Citing on Tuesday in Abu Dhabi "a time of enormous change" in the Middle East, he challenged regional leaders to step forward to ensure differences are resolved "peacefully, without loss of life."