Barack Obama arrives in Jordan for talks with Mideast leaders
He is to have two days of meetings on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which flared anew in Jerusalem when a Palestinian was killed after an attack near the hotel where Obama is to stay later.
AMMAN, JORDAN — After visits to war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan, Barack Obama shifted his focus to Mideast peace efforts today as he arrived here for two days of talks with leaders in Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian territories.
The all-but-sure Democratic nominee for president arrived at a military base in Jordan under tight security after concluding his Iraq visit this morning with a stop in Ramadi, once a breeding ground of the Sunni insurgency.
Obama told reporters in Jordan that the tribal leaders whom he met in Ramadi this morning expressed concern that a "precipitous" withdrawal could lead to new violence.
"I have proposed a steady, deliberate drawdown over the course of 16 months, and I emphasized that to them," Obama said.
But even as he left the combat zones of Iraq behind, an attack this morning near the Jerusalem hotel where Obama plans to stay tonight offered an unwelcome illustration of the enduring violence stemming from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
A Palestinian man rammed a construction vehicle into three cars and a city bus, injuring four people before an Israeli civilian shot and killed him, the Associated Press reported.
"Today's bulldozer attack is a reminder of what Israelis have courageously lived with on a daily basis for far too long," Obama told reporters in Amman.
The Illinois senator spoke from behind a lectern in the dramatic setting of ancient ruins atop Citadel Hill, or Jebel-al-Qual'a. Across the valley behind him were thousands of concrete apartment buildings terraced across the steep hillsides of Amman. Towering nearby on the hilltop were pillars of the Temple of Hercules.
On either side of Obama were the two senators who traveled with him to Iraq, Afghanistan and Kuwait: Republican Chuck Hagel of Nebraska and Democrat Jack Reed of Rhode Island.
Like Obama, they called for a shift in U.S. troops from Iraq to Afghanistan, saying they are sorely needed there to fight resurgent Taliban and Al Qaeda forces.
Of all the things he learned in the war zones, the most "eye-popping," Obama said, was "the extent to which the porous border between Pakistan and Afghanistan makes it very difficult for our troops, good as they are, to decisively defeat the Taliban" and terrorist groups.
Obama's nine-day trip abroad is aimed at building voter confidence in his ability to handle foreign affairs, an area where Republican rival John McCain has held an edge in public opinion polls.
