Kerry to discuss Middle East peace, military action against Syria with EU, Arab leaders Administration attention is clearly focused most intensely on what is going on in the congressional debate over authorization for a military strike. Aides said Kerry would continue making calls to lawmakers over the weekend; he has already cut his trip short by two days to return to Washington on Monday. But between the calls home, Kerry wants to talk to "some of our closest friends ... about our latest thinking on Syria, how we see the situation developing in the coming days," said a senior State Department official aboard Kerry's plane. "We also want to talk about where they can be helpful, especially in terms of building broader international consensus," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity prior to the discussions. So far, the level of international support has been disappointing. Although the administration has said repeatedly that other governments agree with its assessment of the need to act on a red line against chemical use, relatively few have matched President Obama's public determination.. Following the British parliament's rejection of participation in a military attack, fewer still have said they would contribute resources to a strike. Many U.S. friends have voiced concern about the lack of a United Nations mandate for the use of force, and said they would like to try again for a Security Council resolution, despite the fact that Russia and China continue to block a resolution. In Paris, Kerry will also meet with French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, whose government has been the most outspoken in offering support, and possible participation, in a military strike against Syria. For months before the Syria crisis exploded, Kerry spent much of his time and energy working on the Middle East peace process, eventually persuading the two sides to return to direct negotiations after a three-year hiatus. But since those negotiations began in July, he has had little opportunity to attend to the talks A second State Department official rejected repeated reports that the talks are faltering, saying that not a single negotiating session has been cancelled, and statements indicating otherwise "are made by people who are ignorant about what's going on." "Inevitably with so much turmoil roiling the Middle East...in some ways it's a major distraction" to the peace process, the official said. But he also discerned a silver lining in the Syrian and Egyptian crises. "For example, developments in Egypt, I think, have a fairly significant impact on the standing and credibility of Hamas," whose Islamist rule in the Gaza Strip has lost a leading backer in the overthrow of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood government. As a result, the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority and President Mahmoud Abbas "is in a stronger position politically" to negotiate with Israel, the official said.