Obama turns focus from war to peace

After visits to Iraq and Afghanistan, the Democratic presidential candidate plans to meet with Israeli and Palestinian leaders.

By Michael Finnegan
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

July 23, 2008

AMMAN, JORDAN — After visits to war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan, Barack Obama shifted his focus to Mideast peace efforts Tuesday as he arrived in the region for two days of talks with leaders in Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian territories.

The all-but-sure Democratic nominee for president vowed to work "from the minute I'm sworn in to office to try to find some breakthroughs" in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

"I think it's unrealistic to expect that a U.S. president alone can suddenly snap his fingers and bring about peace in this region," Obama said shortly after his arrival in Jordan under tight security. "What a U.S. president can do is apply sustained energy and focus on the issues of the Israelis and the Palestinians."

Obama spoke in a dramatic setting, the ancient ruins atop Citadel Hill, or Jebel al Quala, near the towering pillars of the Temple of Hercules. Across the valley behind him, thousands of concrete dwellings were visible, terraced across the steep hillsides of Amman, the capital. Soldiers with heavy weaponry patrolled the roasting hilltop as dust clouds swirled around Obama's lectern.

Obama's nine-day trip abroad is aimed at building voter confidence in his ability to handle foreign affairs at a time when Republican rival John McCain is portraying him as naive and unfit to protect the nation's security.

Campaigning in New Hampshire on Tuesday, McCain mocked the first-term Illinois senator for making "his first trip to Afghanistan ever" in recent days and getting his "first briefing ever" from Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq.

Today, Obama plans to visit the southern Israeli town of Sderot, a frequent target of rockets fired by Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip. He will also spend time in Jerusalem at Yad Vashem, a memorial to Holocaust victims.

Obama flew from Amman to Tel Aviv on Tuesday night.

He arrived in Jordan after wrapping up his Iraq visit on Tuesday morning with a stop in Ramadi, once a breeding ground of the Sunni Arab insurgency. He met for three hours with tribal leaders who voiced concern, he said, 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.

Obama said Petraeus, who met with him Monday, made clear that he "does not want a timetable" for a U.S. pullout. But Obama renewed his call for a gradual withdrawal of troops, saying the U.S. needs to shift forces to Afghanistan to fight resurgent Taliban and Al Qaeda forces planning terrorist attacks.

Unlike a commander in chief, Obama said, Petraeus does not need to think about how some of the $10 billion spent by the U.S. on the Iraq war each month could be used "to shore up a U.S. economy that is really hurting right now."

Even as he left the combat zones of Iraq behind, an attack Tuesday morning near the Jerusalem hotel where Obama planned to stay illustrated the enduring violence of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. A Palestinian man rammed a construction vehicle into a city bus and four vehicles, injuring six people before an Israeli civilian and border policeman shot and killed him.

Obama called the attack "a reminder of what Israelis have courageously lived with on a daily basis for far too long." Terrorism makes Israelis "want to dig in and simply think about their own security, regardless of what's going on beyond their borders," he said.

At the same time, Palestinians get frustrated when "they can't get to their job or they can't make a living" on the West Bank or in Gaza, he added. "It's hard for them, if they see no glimmer of hope, to then want to take that leap in order to make concessions."

Obama's calibration of the balance between Israeli and Palestinian interests showed the delicate task he faces in weighing the impact of his Mideast trip back home -- particularly on Jewish voters.

He is scheduled to meet today with Israeli President Shimon Peres and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

He also plans to confer in the West Bank city of Ramallah with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.

In Jordan, Obama met privately with King Abdullah II at Beit al Urdun palace. Afterward, they joined Queen Rania and invited guests for dinner. Abdullah drove Obama to the airport in his Mercedes 600, dropping him off on the tarmac. Jordanian soldiers wearing red-pattern kaffiyehs saluted Obama as he headed up the stairs of the plane.

The king, who cut short a visit to the United States to greet Obama, released a statement saying he told Obama "that ending the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land and achieving a just settlement to the Arab-Israeli conflict tops the priorities of the people of the Middle East."

michael.finnegan@latimes.com

Times staff writer Maeve Reston contributed to this report.

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

ran stages Persian Gulf missile tests amid warnings to its 'enemies'

CAIRO -- With U.S. warships in the Persian Gulf and the rhetoric between Iran and Israel growing heated, Tehran announced today that it had test-fired nine missiles, including at least one capable of striking Israel and other American interests in the Middle East.

The missiles were fired during military exercises staged by Iran's Revolutionary Guards near the strategic oil shipping lanes in the Strait of Hormuz. State television quoted one of Iran's top military leaders, Gen. Hossein Salami, as saying the war games in the Persian Gulf would "demonstrate our resolve and might against enemies who in recent weeks have threatened Iran with harsh language."The launches were the latest drama in the standoff over Iran's nuclear program, which Tehran says will produce power for civilian use. The West and Israel, however, allege that Iran is intent on building a bomb.

The missiles streaked into the desert sky as U.S. and British ships were on military maneuvers in the gulf, and just days after disclosures that Israel had conducted long-range military exercises last month as a rehearsal for a possible strike on Iran.

Iranian TV showed three simultaneous launches, including a new version of the Shahab-3 missile, which Tehran claims carries a 1-ton conventional warhead and can travel 1,250 miles, well within the range of U.S. troops in Iraq, the Navy's 5th Fleet in Bahrain and American allies such as Israel, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. Iran said earlier this week that it would retaliate against U.S. and Israeli interests in the region if its nuclear facilities were attacked.

"Our hands are always on the trigger and our missiles are ready for launch," the official IRNA news agency quoted Salami as saying today.

The launches came a day after seemingly contradictory statements from top Iranian officials. A spokesman for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the country's supreme leader, said Tel Aviv and the U.S. fleet in the gulf would "burst into flames" if Tehran were attacked. But President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, usually the official leading the bellicose rhetoric, appeared to soften the atmosphere by saying that the prospect of Israel and the U.S. striking Iran was a "funny joke" and that there "won't be any war" in the future.

"The Iranian regime only furthers the isolation of the Iranian people from the international community when it engages in this sort of activity," said Gordon Johndroe, deputy White House press secretary, speaking from Japan where President Bush is attending the Group of Eight summit. "They should also refrain from further missile tests if they truly seek to gain the trust of the world."

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who was traveling in Bulgaria, said the test launches were "evidence that the missile threat is not an imaginary one."

Israel's reaction to the test was low-key. Government spokesman Mark Regev said the Jewish state "does not desire hostility and conflict with Iran. But it is clear that the Iranian nuclear program and the Iranian ballistic missile program is a matter of grave concern."

Tehran and the West are expected to resume talks on Iran's nuclear program later this month. But there appears to little progress. On Saturday, Iranian government spokesman Gholamhossein Elham, an Ahmadinejad loyalist, reiterated Iran's long-standing position that it won't stop producing nuclear material, a highly technical process that involves running uranium gas through spinning centrifuges. The uranium enriched to a lower quality can be used as fuel for civilian power plants; highly enriched material can be made into nuclear weapons.

jeff.fleishman@latimes.com

Times staff writer Richard Boudreaux in Jerusalem and special correspondent Ramin Mostaghim in Tehran contributed to this report.