According to AMNA, in statements made by the two leaders afterwards, the U.S. President expressed the view that Greece’s efforts to exit the crisis cannot be focused only on austerity but require growth and creation of new jobs. Obama spoke of the deep friendship existing between the two countries, making special reference to the Greek-American community.

Obama’s comments to the media in the Oval Office regarding the urgent need to tackle unemployment in Greece, which reached 27.6% in May according to figures published yesterday, met with Samaras’ approval. The Greek prime minister nodded as the US president made his point, Kathimerini notes.

According to primeminister.gr, addressing the media after the meeting, US President Barack Obama said:

“Our government owes a great debt to Greece, our form of government. The Greek-American community here are incredible businesspeople and political leaders and community leaders and great friends of mine. And that bond that extends beyond governments but goes to our peoples I think is what makes Greek-American relations so special.

Prime Minister Samaras comes here at a time when I think we’re all aware Greece is going through incredible challenges. And so far, the Prime Minister has taken some very bold and difficult actions to initiate the structural reforms that can help reduce the debt burden that Greece experiences but, even more importantly, can unleash the incredible talents of the Greek people so that they’re effectively competing in this new world economy.

We had an extensive discussion about the challenges that remain, and I’m confident that Prime Minister Samaras is committed to continuing on these structural reforms. What we also agreed to is that in dealing with the challenges that Greece faces, we cannot simply look to austerity as a strategy. It’s important that we have a plan for fiscal consolidation to manage the debt, but it’s also important that growth and jobs are a focus because we know from history that those countries that are growing, those countries where employment is high and people are increasing their productivity and feel as if the economy’s moving forward, those countries have an easier time reducing their debt burdens than countries where people are feeling hopeless.

And I think Prime Minister Samaras is committed to taking the tough actions that are required, but also, understandably, wants to make sure that the Greek people see a light at the end of the tunnel.

And what I expressed to him is that the United States wants to continue to be helpful and supportive in what will be a challenging process. But we’re confident that Greece can succeed. And, you know, the stakes are high for not only Greece but also Europe and the world economy.

We also discussed the strong bilateral military and intelligence cooperation between our two countries. Greece is a NATO ally. They have worked with us in preventing terrorist threats from actually happening. We have partnered on a whole range of issues. They are host for some of our very important military personnel and assets, and we are very grateful to them for that.

And we also had an opportunity to discuss the general environment around the Mediterranean, in the Balkans. As the Prime Minister put it, sometimes it’s a challenging neighborhood. And Greece can play an important stabilizing role and partnership role as we address issues in the Middle East, in North Africa, as we address issues in the Balkans.

You know, there is a great opportunity as we speak for the decades-long conflict and tensions that exist in Cyprus to be resolved.

And I think we’re both encouraged by the messages that have been coming out of the Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities. And we’re going to be, I think, working very closely together to see if we can make progress on those fronts.

So this has been an excellent conversation. You know, we are very proud of the friendship and partnership that we have with the Greek people. We want to be as helpful as we can during this period of challenge, and we’re confident that the Prime Minister recognizes what needs to be done and is going to be working very hard to accomplish it.”

According to the previous source, Prime Minister Antonis Samaras said: “…We did have a very good conversation with the President and analysis on different areas.

I first of all want to say that our two peoples and our two countries have been more than allies. Not only did they fight next to each other throughout their history, always for a noble cause, but they cherish and they support the same values, like freedom, democracy and independence. So it’s good to be here.

In terms of the economy, yes, we’ve gone through thick and thin. The sacrifices made by the Greek people are huge, but they’re not going to be in vain because what we now need is development of jobs and growth. Of course, we are going to do what has to be done as far as structural changes are concerned, but our emphasis has to be on growth and on the creation of new jobs, especially for the youth, because as I told the President, in Greece, the unemployment for the youth has reached an incredible number of 60 percent, and total unemployment of 28 percent.

And the Greek people have sacrificed more than a quarter of the GDP only the last four years. So by definition, emphasis is on growth creation.

But the other thing I want to say is that if Greece succeeds – and it will succeed – our success story is going also to be a European success story. And I believe this is very important.

On the other hand, we are trying to do as much as we can to stabilize a very destabilized environment where we live. I believe that the region has many problems. We are going to try and solve as much as we can, establish this cooperation, which I think is important, on the areas that you have described, being always an advocate of international law wherever there are problems around. I believe that the problems have to do with illegal immigration, internal turbulence in various countries and even, unfortunately, the problem of terrorism.

And I think that there is a lot of synergies that we can have together in order to try and solve, as much as we can, those problems, including, as you said, the problem of Cyprus, which, after the new proposals of the Greek President, opens up a window of opportunity as long as we always, as I said, abide by the international laws and the decisions of the United Nations.

I would also like to say that I told the President that we have found huge energy resources in our great region. Cyprus, Israel and Greece can realign those resources in order to be able to satisfy the European demand, especially for natural gas.

And last but not least, I told the President that we will try to do as much as we can during the Greek Presidency in the first semester of next year with the help of the Italian Presidency that will follow in order to be able and conclude the trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, which I think is very important, because as you know, Mr. President, Europe and the U.S. together, in this trade, account, as you’ve said before, more than 50 percent of the world GDP.

And therefore, it’s important, especially for Europe, to liberalize that potential and create new jobs, because I think jobs for everyone is the number one priority, especially to our youth, because everything we’re doing has to do with your younger generation…”

Government sources see the meeting between Samaras and Obama as a vote of confidence from the US in Greece’s premier at a time when his coalition is under considerable pressure at home. A White House official told Kathimerini that the US government believes the Samaras government “is working very hard in challenging conditions.”

According to a White House announcement, Samaras and Obama will discuss American support for the government’s economic reform efforts, trade negotiations, Cyprus, defence cooperation, counterterrorism and security issues in Syria and north Africa.

The last Greek prime minister to visit the White House was George Papandreou, who met with Obama in March 2010, enet.gr notes.

President Barack Obama’s second presidential visit to Africa kicks off in Senegal, with stops in South Africa and Tanzania. This is a good regional mix highlighting the development and governance successes that are likely to be main themes of his trip. Senegal’s peaceful political transition is additional incentive.

Obama will also send a message, though, when he flies right over some of the more strategic but controversial US allies on the continent – Ethiopia, Kenya, and Uganda. Despite strong security partnerships, these three countries have dismal human rights records, a tendency to undermine the rule of law, and accountability concerns. Maybe this snub will make a diplomatic point, but Obama needs to do much more on human rights and governance with these key African security partners.

US policy towards Africa is three-pronged – aimed at promoting development, security, and human rights. State Department officials often say they seek a balanced approach, but the truth is, human rights gets the short shrift.

Take Uganda. President Bill Clinton described President Yoweri Museveni in the 1990s as one of Africa’s “new generation” of leaders.” Recent US administrations have bolstered the Ugandan military in their efforts against the Lord’s Resistance Army and their counter-terrorism operations in Somalia, while ignoring that soldiers and police were responsible for killing protesters and other abuses at home.

Museveni, in his 27th year in power, is steadily narrowing the ability of Ugandans to ask critical questions or mount public protests about corruption, state use of land and resources and governance. Twenty activists have been arrested this year for protesting corruption and government expenditure and in May, in a blatant show of contempt for press freedom, Ugandan police closed the Daily Monitor, one of Uganda’s most important independent dailies, and several other outlets, for publishing accounts of internal schisms over Museveni’s successor.

Ethiopia presents an even starker picture. Following disputed elections in 2005, the longtime strongman, the late Meles Zenawi, used draconian laws to stifle most independent human rights work and to crack down on press freedom. Donors have muffled their response in fear of the thin-skinned government’s reaction. Ethiopia’s security partnership with the US has also played a part: the US bases aerial drones in Ethiopia and relies on its support for counterterrorism operations in Somalia.

The US has become increasingly muted on Ethiopia’s human rights record, invoking quiet diplomacy despite clear indications that such a strategy can only fail. The US, the country’s largest bilateral donor, responded only tepidly while Ethiopian civil society has been eviscerated, journalists have been convicted of “terrorism,” and Addis cracks down on peaceful Muslim protests and completely blocks independent media and human rights investigations. As donors increase direct assistance to the government, it reinforces the message that human rights abuses have no consequences.

Omitting Kenya from Obama’s itinerary was perhaps the most difficult choice, given the president’s ancestral connection and its status as a political and economic lynchpin in the region. But Kenya’s recent elections, while peaceful, resulted in victories for two politicians who were indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against humanity after the last election in 2007.

Despite pledges to cooperate with the ICC, President Uhuru Kenyatta and Vice President William Ruto have expended more energy mobilizing political support to squelch the ICC cases than advancing crucial reforms to address the injustices that led to more than 1,300 deaths in 2007-2008. Given that Kenya’s leadership has perfected the art of evading accountability in domestic courts, and that the ICC cases were brought for this very reason, the irony is breathtaking.

In recent years, US policy toward Kenya has been a bit of an outlier on the continent, with an agenda based on the need for rule of law, justice, and accountability. The US has been a strong proponent of the ICC process and tried to craft a nuanced policy to support genuine reform. That kind of thoughtful approach is needed more than ever – and not just in Kenya.

Four years ago in his landmark speech in Ghana, President Obama delivered a statement that was prescient given the ensuing events in the Arab world. He said, “Africa doesn’t need strongmen, it needs strong institutions.” That line captured the concerns and aspirations of millions of Africans who hoped that Washington would use its clout with the many governments on the continent, from Angola to Ethiopia to Zimbabwe, where authoritarian leadership has routinely quashed aspirations for basic civil and political rights.

They’ve been largely disappointed. Obama’s lofty rhetoric has generally failed to translate into meaningful changes with many US allies in Africa. In Accra, he also said that “development depends on good governance,” but since that speech the US has continued to investing in security and economic development with little emphasis on human rights and the rule of law.

Skipping Ethiopia, Kenya, and Uganda is an important symbolic gesture, but the Obama administration will need to match the president’s words with tangible initiatives that do more to put the rights of African citizens and victims of abuses first, before the strongmen who claim to represent them.

“The use of chemical weapons would be a game-changer not simply for the United States but for the international community,” Obama said.

“By game-changer I mean that we would have to rethink the range of options that are available to us,” he continued.

The Assad government has been accused by the US of using weapons loaded with nerve agents against targets in civilian areas during the country’s two-year-long conflict but did not know exactly when, how and who had fired them.

“And what we now have is evidence that chemical weapons have been used inside of Syria, but we don’t know how they were used, when they were used, who used them. We don’t have a chain of custody that establishes what exactly happened.”

In a press conference at the White House on Tuesday, Obama said the Pentagon and other security agencies had been told to make preparations for possible action if the “red line” of chemical weapon use had indeed been crossed.

“Now, we’re already, as I’ve said, invested in trying to bring about a solution inside of Syria. Obviously, there are options that are available to me that are on the shelf right now that we have not deployed. And that’s a spectrum of options. As early as last year, I asked the Pentagon, our military, our intelligence officials to prepare for me what options might be available. And I won’t go into the details of what those options might be, but clearly that would be an escalation, in our view, of the threat to the security of the international community, our allies, and the United States, and that means that there are some options that we might not otherwise exercise that we would strongly consider.”

The US has previously stated that the use of chemical weapons would be a “red line” that could trigger US reaction.

Meanwhile, U.S. President Barack Obama is gearing up to send lethal weapons to the Syrian opposition, according to senior administration officials speaking to The Washington Post on Wednesday.

Obama is likely to make a final decision on the supply of arms to the opposition “within weeks,” the Post reported, citing unnamed officials.

Obama should raise concerns with Al Nahyan about severe violations of fair trial rights, allegations of torture, and the laws and practices that foster exploitation of the UAE’s sizable migrant population, Human Rights Watch said.

When Obama and Al Nahyan last met, on June 27, 2012, they issued a joint statement calling on governments and citizens across the Middle East to “avoid violence, advance tolerance, and protect human rights – particularly the rights of women.” However, the backdrop to the two leaders’ forthcoming meeting is the UAE’s fundamentally unfair mass trial of 94 critics of the government, the unpunished torture by its state security services, and an escalating crackdown on free speech, Human Rights Watch said.

The UAE authorities are trying the 94 peaceful critics of the government on charges that they “initiated, established, and ran an organization seeking to oppose the basic principles of the UAE system of governance and to seize power.” Information from UAE sources indicates that many of the defendants were detained at UAE State Security facilities. Human Rights Watch has documented and receives credible reports of torture from former detainees of these facilities.

Although the UAE authorities claim that the defendants pose a national security risk, their trial appears to be part of a broader attack on the right to freedom of expression, Human Rights Watch said.

In March 2012, the UAE authorities closed the local offices of two foreign organizations that promote the exchange of ideas and political debate: the National Democratic Institute, a body linked to the Democratic Party in the United States; and the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, linked to Germany’s Christian Democratic Union. In December, authorities closed down the Abu Dhabi office of the RAND Corporation, a US-based research organization. The UAE authorities issued no public statements explaining the justification for any of the closures.

In November, the UAE issued a new federal decree on cybercrime. The decree provides a legal basis to prosecute people who use information technology to exercise their free speech rights, including criticizing senior officials, arguing for political reform, or organizing unlicensed demonstrations. Although the UAE claims to be a regional leader on migrant workers’ rights, it has not made meaningful progress to protect them from severe exploitation by employers, Human Rights Watch said. The UAE has not significantly reformed the legal and regulatory framework that is responsible for the serious exploitation of migrant workers, in a country where 85 percent of the population are foreign nationals.

The combination of a highly exploitative system of sponsorship-based employment, the illegal but customary confiscation by employers of workers’ passports, and the failure of the UAE authorities and labor-sending states to eliminate illegal recruitment fees, significantly increases the likelihood and incidence of forced labor. The UAE has not implemented any legislation to protect migrant domestic workers, most of them women, who are not covered by national labor law. A draft law from 2012 is deeply flawed.

As the US State Department noted in its 2012 Trafficking in Persons Report, the UAE government has failed to address trafficking for labor exploitation, and prohibitions against contributory factors to forced labor have not been enforced.

“President Obama should break with past US soft-pedalling criticism of severe abuses in the UAE, especially when he has called publicly for other countries in the region to respect human rights,” Whitson said.

At Thursday’s news conference in Ramallah, following talks with President Mahmoud Abbas, Obama said: “”That’s not to say settlements aren’t important, that’s to say if we resolve the main problems, then settlements will be resolved.”

“If the only way to begin the conversation we have to get everything right from the outset … then we’re never going to get to the broader issue, which is how do you structure a state of Palestine,” Obama added.

In response to Obama’s remarks Abbas did not openly call for a settlement freeze as a precondition for negotiations, though he didn’t say the opposite either.

Illegal settlements have been the major obstacle to all negotiations as Israel refused Palestinians’ demands to stop construction of the Jewish settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem despite settlements being illegal under the fourth Geneva convention and being in defiance of UN resolutions.

At the beginning of Obama’s speech in Ramallah, the president said that the United States was “deeply committed” to creating a sovereign state of Palestine.

Obama is on his first visit to the close U.S. ally Israel as president.

After a trip to the West Bank, where he met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas he spoke to Israeli students in Jerusalem. saying that continued settlement activity was “counterproductive” to peace, and that the Palestinians had a right to self-determination, Reuters reported.

But he also insisted that now was the time for the Arab world to start normalizing relations with the Jewish state, according to the news agency.

After he leaves Israel on Friday, Obama is scheduled to visit Jordan

US President Barack Obama said at the start of his visit to Israel that the US’ commitment to Israel’s security was not negotiable and that peace must come to the Holy Land, according to Al Jazeera.

“I am confident in declaring that our alliance is eternal, is forever,” he added.

The presidential airplane which landed at Ben-Gurion Airport was awaited by over 1,000 people, according to the Jerusalem Post.

He was greeted at the airport by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Shimon Peres.

The trip is part of his sweep across the Middle East, which will include visits to the West Bank and Jordan.

The conflict in syria and concerns over Iran’s nuclear ambitions are expected to top the agenda in talks with  Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Obama’s relationship with Netanyahu has never been that good, while the Israeli prime minister Netanyahu supported Republican challenger Mitt Romney in last year’s presidential election.

Obama will also hold separate talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank during his visit to the Middle East.

White House officials say he will attempt to get Palestinians and Israelis back on the table for peace talks.

He will also seek to reassure Netanyahu he is committed to preventing Iran from getting a nuclear bomb and discuss ways of containing Syria’s civil war.

However, the White House has not provided any hopes of any major breakthrough, a reversal from Obama’s first four years in office when aides said he would only visit the Jewish state if he had something concrete to accomplish, according to Reuters.

Meanwhile, Palestinians want to see from Obama a stronger stance for the freeze of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

According to media reports protests have been staged in Gaza and Hebron upon the arrival of Obama while posters on Ramallah streets sarcastically advise Obama not to bring his smartphone because Israel does not allow 3G or better service in the Palestinian territories.

In a related development, the U.S. refused to take part on Monday in a UN Human Rights Council debate on Israeli settlements and its effects on Palestinians.

The experts concluded that Israel’s “creeping annexation’’ of the West Bank had led to many rights violations.

Through several of his front companies, Cambis used Iranian funds to purchase oil tankers and disguised the Iranian origin of oil transported on these vessels, the Treasury said.

“Today we are lifting the veil on an intricate Iranian scheme that was designed to evade international oil sanctions,” said Treasury Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence David S. Cohen. “We will continue to expose deceptive Iranian practices, and to sanction those individuals and entities who participate in these schemes.”

Cambis, President of Impire Shipping Limited (Impire), established his shipping company, as well as several front companies, to purchase oil tankers while disguising the fact that the tankers were being purchased on behalf of the National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC), the Treasury said, adding that these front companies were used to obscure the fact that these vessels, which are capable of carrying roughly 200 million dollars worth of oil per shipment, are the property of the Iranian government.

According to the Treasury another front company, Libra Shipping, operates the vessels Cambis and Impire purchased on behalf of NITC with the aim of loading them with Iranian oil supplied by the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), while these operations are conducted through a series of ship-to-ship transfers in an attempt to mask the fact that the true origin of the oil is from Iran and to introduce it into the global market as if it were non-Iranian oil.

The Treasury extended the sanctions to 10 companies in Greece, four in the United Arab Emirates and eight vessels that it said Cambis used to help Iran ship oil abroad.

The Treasury said the four UAE-based firms were Iranian government front companies.

 The four companies are Sima General Trading, Polinex General Trading, Asia Energy General Trading and Synergy General Trading.

The sanctions ban Americans and U.S. companies from undertaking transactions involving the companies and vessels named.

The development marks the latest in what for more than a year has been an effort by the Obama administration to enforce — a global embargo on Iranian crude oil amid mounting international pressure on Iran’s nuclear program.

Addressing journalists after his meeting with Thein Sein, Obama said he understood that the country was taking “just the first steps on what will be a very long journey”.

“But we think a process of democratic and economic reform here in Myanmar that has been begun by the president is one that can lead to incredible development opportunities,” he added.

Obama’s visit to Myanmar is meant to praise the country for its progress toward democracy and to encourage it to move further.

Long critisized because of a repressive military rule, a transition to democracy began last year after a nominally civilian government took office and began taking steps toward democracy.

But some international human rights group object to the Myanmar visit, saying Obama is rewarding the country’s government while they still have a long way to go regarding human rights issues.

“While genuine progress in Myanmar should be encouraged, Obama should be careful not to overstate the changes that have occurred,” Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch said.

“The still-suffering people will be better served by a US president who is committed to seeing long-term reform in their country than one who expresses overeager praise.”

Speaking in Thailand on the the night before his landmark visit to the former pariah state, Obama denied he was going there to offer his “endorsement”.

Instead, he said his intention was to acknowledge that Myanmar, also known as Burma, had opened the door to democratic change but there was still a long way to go.

But the country has also witnessed turmoil in recent months where violence between Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims had led to more than 100,000 displaced people, according to Human Rights Watch.

The UN has called the Rohingya _ who are widely reviled by the Buddhist majority in Myanmar among the world’s most persecuted people.

The White House says Obama will express his concern for the ongoing ethnic tensions in Myanmar’s western Rakhine state with Sein, along with demands to free remaining political prisoners.

Obama will close with a speech at the University of Yangon, praising the country’s progress toward democracy but urge further reforms.

The U.S., Britain, Canada and a few more countries still officially refer it to Myanmar as Burma. But as the relations with the government of President Thein Sein has changed making them less dogmatic about using the old name.

Obama and Romney raced through several battleground states on the final day of campaigning to urge supporters to get to the polls and trying to convince the last remaining undecided voters.

Romney is set to make two campaign stops on Election Day in the battleground state of Ohio. The Obama campaign, meanwhile, had not announced any public Election Day campaign events as of Monday afternoon.

National polls of the eve of Election Day showed a neck-and-neck race. But the winner will be determined by which man gets 270 electoral votes, AFP reports.

Obama carries a slight lead in the polls nationally, according to the website RealClearPolitics, which track and averages nationwide polling data. Meanwhile, a final national NBC/Wall Street Journal Poll showed Obama getting the support of 48 percent of likely voters, with Romney receiving 47 percent. A Washington Post-ABC News tracking poll had Obama at 49 and Romney at 48.

All of those results were within the polls’ margins of error.

Meanwhile, recent polls showed the majority of Arab Americans intend to vote for incumbent President Barack Obama even though some have voiced disappointment in the United States’ first black president.

A mid-September survey of 400 voters conducted by the Arab American Institute (AAI) showed that President Barack Obama leads Republican candidate Mitt Romney among Arab-Americans, 52% to 28%, with 16 percent undecided.

Numbering about 4 million, they’re heavily concentrated in several battleground states including Florida, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, according to al-monitor.

Polls will begin to close in Indiana and Kentucky at 6 p.m. EST (2300 GMT) on Tuesday, with voting ending across the country over the next few hours.