xea
FULL MEMBER
New Recruit
- Joined
- Jul 23, 2008
- Messages
- 73
- Reaction score
- 0
WASHINGTON: Democrat Barack Obama, speaking during a whirlwind overseas tour, said Friday that Iran should promptly accept an international call to freeze its uranium enrichment program, which some countries see as a potential step toward obtaining nuclear weapons.
The presidential candidate met with French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris, where they discussed Iran, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, climate change and other issues.
Paris is the latest stop on Obama's weeklong international tour designed to reassure American voters that he is able to mend relations with key allies frustrated with eight years of the unpopular President George W. Bush, and that he can handle international affairs an area where he has been criticized by Republican rival John McCain as naive and unprepared.
The trip began with a tour of the war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan, visits to Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian territories, and included stops in Germany and France. Britain is the last stop.
Meanwhile McCain, criticized Obama over his Iraq war policies, an issue that has starkly divided the two candidates.
McCain said Obama's policies would have led to defeat in both Iraq and Afghanistan and possibly pushed the entire Middle East into war.
The Arizona Republican told an audience of Hispanic military veterans in Denver that "the entire region might have erupted into war" if troops had been withdrawn prematurely from Iraq as he said Obama advocated.
"Sen. Obama told the American people what he thought you wanted to hear. I told you the truth," McCain said in defending his support for Bush's decision to build up forces in Iraq.
Obama has called for a withdrawal of combat troops over a 16-month period beginning when he takes office. McCain has rejected calls for a timeline.
McCain will later visit with the Dalai Lama in Aspen, Colorado, before heading home to Sedona, Arizona, for the weekend.
During a news conference at Paris' presidential Elysee Palace, Obama said Iran should accept the proposals made by Sarkozy and other Western leaders. He urged Iran's leaders not to wait for the next U.S. president "because the pressure, I think, is only going to build."
The United States and other Western nations accuse Iran of seeking to acquire nuclear weapons and demand that it freeze its uranium enrichment program. Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.
Obama said that he and Sarkozy agreed that Iran poses "an extraordinarily grave situation." The world must send "a clear message to Iran to end its illicit nuclear program," he said.
The first-term senator from Illinois also told reporters at the news conference that "Afghanistan is a war we have to win." The Taliban and terrorist groups it supports, he said, pose an unacceptable threat to the U.S., France and other nations.
"We've got to finish the job," said Obama, who often has said the Iraq war was an unwise move that distracted the United States from efforts to find Osama bin Laden and other terrorist leaders and to root out the Taliban forces in Afghanistan.
Highlighting the interest that European audiences have taken in this year's presidential election, Sarkozy, who has referred to the Democrat as his "buddy," said the French have been following the U.S. presidential race "with passion."
"It's fascinating to watch what's happening there," he said.
Obama's trip to France came after a visit Thursday to Germany, capped by a speech at the city's Victory Column in Berlin's Tiergarten park in front of about 200,000 people.
The Democrat recalled Berlin's history as a divided city and the front line of the Cold War. He said Europeans and Americans must work together to "defeat terror and dry up the well of extremism that supports it," the same as they beat back the Communist challenge in the generations after World War II.
Acknowledging recent strains in the Atlantic alliance and grave differences with Germany over the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Obama said, "partnership and cooperation among nations is not a choice; it is the one way, the only way, to protect our common security and advance our common humanity."
McCain, who has struggled to gain media attention during Obama's trip, on Thursday tried to take the wind out of Obama's sails with his own campaign stop at a German restaurant in Ohio.
"I'd love to give a speech in Germany. But I'd much prefer to do it as president of the United States rather than as a candidate for president," McCain told reporters after a meal of bratwurst with local business leaders at Schmidt's Sausage Haus und Restaurant in Columbus.
In what was clearly not a coincidence, McCain spoke shortly before Obama began his speech in Berlin, telling reporters he was focusing this week on economic issues, such as soaring food and fuel costs.
On Thursday evening, the skin cancer survivor shared a stage at Ohio State University with fellow cancer survivor Lance Armstrong at a nonpartisan forum to which Obama was also invited.
The presidential candidate met with French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris, where they discussed Iran, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, climate change and other issues.
Paris is the latest stop on Obama's weeklong international tour designed to reassure American voters that he is able to mend relations with key allies frustrated with eight years of the unpopular President George W. Bush, and that he can handle international affairs an area where he has been criticized by Republican rival John McCain as naive and unprepared.
The trip began with a tour of the war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan, visits to Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian territories, and included stops in Germany and France. Britain is the last stop.
Meanwhile McCain, criticized Obama over his Iraq war policies, an issue that has starkly divided the two candidates.
McCain said Obama's policies would have led to defeat in both Iraq and Afghanistan and possibly pushed the entire Middle East into war.
The Arizona Republican told an audience of Hispanic military veterans in Denver that "the entire region might have erupted into war" if troops had been withdrawn prematurely from Iraq as he said Obama advocated.
"Sen. Obama told the American people what he thought you wanted to hear. I told you the truth," McCain said in defending his support for Bush's decision to build up forces in Iraq.
Obama has called for a withdrawal of combat troops over a 16-month period beginning when he takes office. McCain has rejected calls for a timeline.
McCain will later visit with the Dalai Lama in Aspen, Colorado, before heading home to Sedona, Arizona, for the weekend.
During a news conference at Paris' presidential Elysee Palace, Obama said Iran should accept the proposals made by Sarkozy and other Western leaders. He urged Iran's leaders not to wait for the next U.S. president "because the pressure, I think, is only going to build."
The United States and other Western nations accuse Iran of seeking to acquire nuclear weapons and demand that it freeze its uranium enrichment program. Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.
Obama said that he and Sarkozy agreed that Iran poses "an extraordinarily grave situation." The world must send "a clear message to Iran to end its illicit nuclear program," he said.
The first-term senator from Illinois also told reporters at the news conference that "Afghanistan is a war we have to win." The Taliban and terrorist groups it supports, he said, pose an unacceptable threat to the U.S., France and other nations.
"We've got to finish the job," said Obama, who often has said the Iraq war was an unwise move that distracted the United States from efforts to find Osama bin Laden and other terrorist leaders and to root out the Taliban forces in Afghanistan.
Highlighting the interest that European audiences have taken in this year's presidential election, Sarkozy, who has referred to the Democrat as his "buddy," said the French have been following the U.S. presidential race "with passion."
"It's fascinating to watch what's happening there," he said.
Obama's trip to France came after a visit Thursday to Germany, capped by a speech at the city's Victory Column in Berlin's Tiergarten park in front of about 200,000 people.
The Democrat recalled Berlin's history as a divided city and the front line of the Cold War. He said Europeans and Americans must work together to "defeat terror and dry up the well of extremism that supports it," the same as they beat back the Communist challenge in the generations after World War II.
Acknowledging recent strains in the Atlantic alliance and grave differences with Germany over the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Obama said, "partnership and cooperation among nations is not a choice; it is the one way, the only way, to protect our common security and advance our common humanity."
McCain, who has struggled to gain media attention during Obama's trip, on Thursday tried to take the wind out of Obama's sails with his own campaign stop at a German restaurant in Ohio.
"I'd love to give a speech in Germany. But I'd much prefer to do it as president of the United States rather than as a candidate for president," McCain told reporters after a meal of bratwurst with local business leaders at Schmidt's Sausage Haus und Restaurant in Columbus.
In what was clearly not a coincidence, McCain spoke shortly before Obama began his speech in Berlin, telling reporters he was focusing this week on economic issues, such as soaring food and fuel costs.
On Thursday evening, the skin cancer survivor shared a stage at Ohio State University with fellow cancer survivor Lance Armstrong at a nonpartisan forum to which Obama was also invited.
