Trump Meets King Abdullah Of Jordan, Condemns Chemical Attack In Syria

President Trump on Wednesday condemned this week’s chemical weapons attack in Syria, saying it was “an affront to humanity,” and pledged to stand with America’s allies to condemn the “horrific act.”

Mr. Trump condemned the attacks as he stood next to King Abdullah II of Jordan in the Rose Garden, where he pledged to work with Jordan and other allies in the Middle East to defeat the Islamic State.

“We are both leaders on that,” Mr. Trump said, adding that “it will be a shorter fight than a lot of people are thinking about, believe me.”

Mr. Trump called the king a “tireless advocate” for peace in the Middle East and said he hoped that the two countries could work with Israelis and Palestinians to achieve peace between them.

Mr. Trump’s appearance beside King Abdullah came amid a flurry of deepening international crises in Syria and North Korea, and just hours after news broke of the president’s decision to remove Stephen K. Bannon, his chief strategist, from a key committee at the National Security Council.

In Syria, televised images of a devastating chemical weapons attack that killed scores of women and children raised new questions about Mr. Trump’s approach to the brutal civil war in that country.

Speaking briefly to reporters on Wednesday before the news conference, Mr. Trump said that “these are very troubled times in the Middle East.” He continued: “And we see what happened just recently, yesterday, in Syria. Horrible. Horrible thing. Unspeakable.”

Earlier, Mr. Trump had laid the blame for the incident on President Barack Obama, saying that the attack was the result of Mr. Obama’s failure to follow through on military threats after Syria’s use of chemical weapons in 2013.

On Wednesday, Mr. Trump declined to elaborate on his own policy for responding to the attacks.

“You’ll see,” he said.

Mr. Trump took questions from reporters after new reports that North Korea had fired a ballistic missile on Tuesday night, increasing concerns about Kim Jong-un, North Korea’s leader, on the eve of a summit between Mr. Trump and Xi Jinping, the president of China.

Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson issued a short statement after the test, saying bluntly: “The United States has spoken enough about North Korea. We have no further comment.”

The decision to remove Mr. Bannon from the principals committee at the National Security Council reverses one of the president’s most controversial early national security actions. His original National Security Council included Mr. Bannon on the key committee, but demoted the role of several intelligence officials.

In the meetings with King Abdullah, Mr. Trump planned to talk about his hopes for negotiating a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians with the help of Arab neighbors. While such an accord has eluded other presidents, Mr. Trump has expressed confidence that he and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, can bring the warring parties together.

Jordan could be important to any negotiation. Home to many Palestinian refugees, it is one of just two Arab states with a peace treaty with Israel and acts as custodian of Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem. King Abdullah has long been viewed as one of the most moderate of Arab leaders and close to a string of American presidents. He recently hosted Jason Greenblatt, Mr. Trump’s envoy, in Jordan.

Indeed, King Abdullah’s visit made him the first foreign leader to talk with Mr. Trump twice in person since the president took office. Fearing a violent backlash if Mr. Trump followed through with promises to move the American embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, the king flew uninvited to Washington in January to buttonhole the president at a prayer breakfast and implore him to hold off. Mr. Trump obliged and has indicated he is rethinking such a move.

But Mr. Trump has abandoned American insistence on the creation of a Palestinian state as the basis for any peace deal, a key condition for Jordan and other Arab states. Mr. Trump has said he could accept such a two-state solution but would also be fine with a one-state solution, if that was agreed to by the two sides.

For King Abdullah, the visit was also important as the civil war in Syria escalates. Jordan has absorbed more than 600,000 Syrian refugees and become especially dependent on American and western assistance to cope with the influx.