[An Nahar] U.S. President Barack ObamaIf you have a small business, you didn't build that...
on Friday will host Jordan's King Abdullah II for White House talks that are sure to focus on Syria, after Washington said Damascus
...Capital of the last overtly fascist regime in the world...
had likely used chemical weapons.
Just over a month after the king welcomed Obama to Amman, the U.S. president wants to discuss "Jordan's political and economic reforms, the crisis in Syria, and additional regional issues of mutual concern," the White House said.
The two leaders were expected to make brief comments to news hounds before their closed-doors talks at about 1:55 pm (1755 GMT) in the Oval Office.
The United States said Thursday for the first time that it believed Syrian
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad
Supressor of the Damascenes...
's regime had likely used chemical weapons against rebel fighters, though cautioned spy agencies were not 100 percent sure.
Washington has repeatedly said the use of such weapons would cross a "red line," triggering possible military action. Last month during a visit to Israel, Obama said the use of chemical weapons would be a "game changer."
"Our intelligence community does assess with varying degrees of confidence that the Syrian regime has used chemical weapons on a small scale in Syria," U.S. National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said.