Obama Visits Symbolic Jerusalem Sites

On the final day of his trip to Israel, US President Barack Obama tours important symbolic sites.

Published

about 1 month ago

Categories

US, World

Topics

US Politics, United States, Middle East & North Africa, International Relations

People

Barack Obama, Benjamin Netanyahu, Shimon Peres

Places

Israel, Jerusalem

Transcript

On the last day of a visit to Israel, U.S. President Barack Obama tours some of Jerusalem's most important historic sites. Flanked by Israeli president Shimon Peres and Prime Minister Benjamin Netenyahu, Obama paid his respects at the tomb of the founder of modern Zionism, Theodor Herzl, who died more than four decades before the 1948 founding of Israel. Obama also visited the final resting place of Yitzhak Rabin, the former Israeli prime minister assassinated in 1995 by a Jewish gunman opposed to his peace moves with the Palestinians And later, a visit to to Israel's Yad Vashem, a memorial to the six million Jews killed by the Nazis in World War Two. Obama has attempted to win over a sceptical Israeli public during his trip, assuring them of full U.S. support at a time of growing tensions with Iran over its nuclear ambitions and anxiety tied to the civil war in Syria. The president was due to fly to nearby Jordan in the afternoon for talks with King Abdullah, a key U.S. Middle East ally.