By Kevin Hechtkopf
President Obama met with Jordan’s King Abdullah today at the White House, and the main topic of discussion undoubtedly was the Mideast Peace process.
Following the meeting, Mr. Obama once again declared that he is committed to a two-state solution, with Israelis and Palestinians living side by side. The president urged all involved to “step back from the abyss” and make hard choices for peace.
“My hope would be that, over the next several months, that you start seeing gestures of good faith on all sides,” he added. “We will be doing everything we can to encourage those confidence- building measures to take place.”
As has often been the case recently, Iran eventually took center stage in the discussion. A reporter asked Mr. Obama about comments Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made yesterday at a United Nations sponsored conference on racism when called Israel “most cruel and repressive racist regime.”
Mr. Obama called the comments “appalling and objectionable.”
“There’s no doubt that the kind of rhetoric that you saw from Ahmadinejad is not helpful,” he added. “In fact, it is harmful, not just with respect to the possibility of U.S.-Iranian relations, but I think it actually undermines Iranians’ position as the world as a whole.”