“We are not blind, and I don’t think we are stupid,” said U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in response to fierce Israeli criticism after the first round of talks about Iran’s nuclear program earlier this month failed to reach a deal. Now the deal is done, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is even harsher in his condemnation of Kerry’s handiwork.

Secretary of State John Kerry offered a robust defense of the interim nuclear agreement with Iran on Sunday, rejecting comparisons to North Korea and insisting that the deal would make Israel and Persian Gulf allies of the United States more secure, not less so. Speaking on three Sunday news programs, Mr. Kerry said the deal, signed early Sunday morning in Geneva, would lock in place nuclear activities that bring Iran closer to having a bomb and subject its nuclear facilities to unprecedented international inspections.

Diplomats often speak with purposeful ambiguity, to please multiple audiences and to not give away their hand prematurely. But a careful parsing of diplo-speak can offer valuable clues in anticipating future policy moves. In what was billed as a major statement on U.S. policy toward Latin America and the Caribbean, earlier this week Secretary of State John Kerry included four substantive paragraphs on Cuba — which were largely misinterpreted by the U.S. media.

When John Kerry succeeded Hillary Clinton as secretary of state in February, Clinton’s emotional departure from the State Department received blanket media coverage. Kerry’s arrival received next to none. “So here’s the big question before the country and the world and the State Department after the last eight years,” Kerry said in a speech to State Department employees on his first day on the job. “Can a man actually run the State Department? I don’t know.”

Israeli-American relations are in free fall. Why? On the face of it the key issue is the terms of the draft deal with Iran that Secretary of State John Kerry was reportedly ready to sign in Geneva, week before last. Yesterday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeated yet again that it is “a bad deal.” And last week Israel’s intelligence minister, Yuval Steinitz, claimed the concessions to Tehran that the United States is contemplating will funnel between $20 and $40 billion to Iran’s coffers.

US Secretary of State John Kerry said it was up to Saudi Arabia to decide when the time was right to allow women to drive. "It's no secret that in the United States of America we embrace equality for everybody regardless of gender, race, or any other qualification," Kerry said at a press conference in Riyadh.

US Secretary of State John Kerry has arrived on an unannounced visit to Egypt as he begins a tour of countries in the region. Mr Kerry, the most senior American official to visit Egypt since the ousting of President Mohammed Morsi in July, will stay only a few hours. The visit comes at a time of tension between Washington and Cairo. Mr Morsi is due to go on trial on Monday.

A picture spoke volumes about the United States' loss of global prestige and influence due to the shutdown of its government in a partisan standoff over the federal budget and debt. Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin beamed front and centre in the family photograph of Asian leaders at last week's Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Bali.