Unwell Tillerson cancels Nairobi program

Young journalists club

News ID: 20371
Publish Date: 19:56 - 10 March 2018
TEHRAN, March 10 - US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, on his first Africa tour as Washington's top diplomat, cancelled his program in Kenya on Saturday because he was feeling unwell.

Unwell Tillerson cancels Nairobi programTEHRAN,Young Journalists Club (YJC) - "The secretary is not feeling well after a long couple days working on major issues back home such as North Korea and has cancelled his events for the day," said a brief statement from Undersecretary of State Steve Goldstein.

He later said that Tillerson was "feeling better and will resume his normal schedule tomorrow (Sunday)".

The announcement came little more than 24 hours after US President Donald Trump stunned the world by accepting an invitation to meet North Korea's Kim Jong Un before the end of May.

The audacious diplomatic gambit, which was taken before consulting key confidantes including Tillerson -- who was in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa at the time -- left aides scrambling to catch up.

Just hours before the summit announcement Thursday, Tillerson had said Washington was "a long way" from talking directly to North Korea as he kicked off his five-nation Africa tour.

The US diplomat, who arrived in Nairobi on Friday, had been due to visit AIDS relief program PEPFAR on Saturday and attend a ceremony marking 20 years since Al-Qaeda bombed the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, killing 224 people.

Tillerson is due to travel to Chad on Monday then on to Nigeria a day later.

Source: AFP

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