Obama, Abdullah to talk diplomacy, refugees

Middle East peace diplomacy and Syrian refugees flooding into Jordan were to top talks between President Obama and King Abdullah Friday, the White House said. "We cooperate with Jordan on a broad range of security issues," deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes told reporters. "That includes, of course, the peace process," he said before Obama left for the Middle East. "It also includes addressing the very grave humanitarian crisis in Syria, including the significant refugee population within Jordan." Jordan, a country of 6.5 million people, has taken in more than 360,000 refugees fleeing the Syrian civil war, with the number expected to rise to 1 million by the end of the year, U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said early this month. Syrian refugees enter Jordan at an average 1,200 people daily, officials say, but nearly 2,000 crossed the border into the country Tuesday and more than 1,700 more entered Wednesday, the official Petra News Agency reported Thursday. More than 100,000 refugees are living in the overcrowded desert Zaatari camp, which was opened near the Jordan-Syria border last July and where security and crime problems are growing, Jordanian officials say. Jordan's al-Ghad newspaper noted Friday while Obama and Abdullah were expected to discuss the refugee crisis, Obama had no plans to visit any refugee camps, which are straining the nation's resources. Jordan is seen by U.S. officials as possibly playing a role in Middle East peace efforts because of its normalized relations with Israel. Abdullah's father, King Hussein, signed a peace treaty with Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1994. Hussein was later honored when his picture appeared on an Israeli postage stamp in recognition of the good relations he established with Israel. Obama spoke with Palestinian leaders and young Israelis about the peace process Thursday. He urged Palestinians to return to the bargaining table even if Israel did not meet their condition of halting Jewish-settlement construction in Palestinian territories. "If we're going to succeed, part of what we're going to have to do is to get out of some of the formulas and habits that have blocked progress for so long," Obama said in a joint news conference with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas after the two leaders met. "Both sides are going to have to think anew," Obama said. "Those of us in the United States are going to have to think anew. But I'm confident that we can arrive at our destination to advance the vision of two nations, two neighbors at peace -- Israel and Palestine." For his part, Abbas said it was "the duty of the Israeli government to at least halt the activity so that we can speak of issues. And when we define our borders and their borders together, each side will know its territory in which it can do whatever it pleases." Abbas did not explicitly cite halting Israeli settlements as a precondition for entering into face-to-face talks with Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. Those talks have been dormant since 2010. Obama later told young Israelis they should empathize with their Palestinian neighbors living under occupation. "Put yourself in their shoes," Obama said. "Look at the world through their eyes. It is not fair that a Palestinian child cannot grow up in a state of their own; living their entire lives with the presence of a foreign army that controls the movements, not just of those young people but their parents, their grandparents, every single day. "It's not just when settler violence against Palestinians goes unpunished," he said. "It's not right to prevent Palestinians from farming their lands; or restricting a student's ability to move around the West Bank; or displace Palestinian families from their homes. "Neither occupation nor expulsion is the answer," Obama said, "Just as Israelis built a state in their homeland, Palestinians have a right to be a free people in their own land." Obama was to lay three wreaths in Israel and have lunch with Netanyahu, then visit the Church of the Nativity in the West Bank town of Bethlehem before flying to Jordan. The Bethlehem basilica -- the oldest continuously operating Christian church in the world -- is considered by Christians to be located over the cave that marks the birthplace of Jesus.