CORRECTS 'Kushner's back-door diplomacy caused embarrassment'

CORRECTS HEADLINE, LEDE, RE-EDITED THROUGHOUT

By Vakkas Dogantekin

ANKARA (AA) - The back-door diplomacy by Jared Kushner, U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, led to numerous embarrassing and awkward situations, said a former U.S. secretary of state in recent testimony before Congress.

As the administration was grappling with major foreign policy issues, diplomacy was being conducted behind his back, Rex Tillerson, who was fired from the top U.S. diplomat’s post in March 2018, said in transcripts of testimony released late Thursday.

Tillerson told the House Foreign Affairs Committee last month that he along with then-Defense Minister Jim Mattis were kept in the dark before four Gulf countries decided to blockade Qatar in June 2017, while Kushner was notified weeks in advance.

He revealed that Kushner and then-presidential adviser Steve Bannon had learned about the blockade more than two weeks in advance when they attended a secret dinner with the leaders of Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

Tillerson said he had tried to dissuade the parties against the blockade. But the Saudi and UAE representatives did not tell him that they had conveyed their plans to the U.S. in advance.

Tillerson, a former longtime CEO of ExxonMobil, said Kushner and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had "a lot of communication between the two of them."

He said Kushner had also travelled to the Middle East without consulting or informing the U.S. State Department.

Tillerson said when he raised the issue with Kushner, he promised to "try to do better," but failed to live up to his promise.

- Out of the loop

Bruce Fein, a former Justice Department official, described the situation described by the testimony as "worrisome".

"When the president runs foreign policy just out of the White House, it is secret government not just dual government," he told Al Jazeera.

Perhaps the most embarrassing moment for Tillerson was bumping into his Mexican counterpart Luis Videgray dining with Kushner at a Washington restaurant.

Apparently, neither Mexico nor the White House felt obliged to inform him about this high-level visit.

Tillerson, whom Trump once called "dumb as a rock", said he "could see the color go out" of the Mexican foreign minister’s face when he greeted them at their table with a smile.

“I said: ‘I do not want to interrupt what you all are doing',” Tillerson told the committee. “I said, ‘Give me a call next time you are coming to town.’ And I left it at that.”

Tillerson’s rocky 13-month tenure diplomatic ended in one final awkward moment, when learned he had his walking papers not directly, but via social media.