USA President Barack Obama has arrived in the Telaviv on Air Force One for a three-day Middle East  tour of Israel, Palestinian Territories and Jordan./ Obama Middle East Tour

Making his first overseas tour since the start of his second term in office, USA President Obama is due to continue on to neighbouring Jordan on Friday.

Mr Obama was met at Tel Aviv Ben Gurion airport by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli President Shimon Peres after Air Force One stopped next to a huge red carpet laid out down the tarmac.

After the countries’ respective national anthems were played Israeli President Shimon Peres said: “A world without America’s leadership, without her moral voice, would be a darker world. A world without your friendship, would invite aggression against Israel.”

Pres. Barack Obama called the US Israel’s “strongest ally and your greatest friend.”

President Obama will hold lengthy talks with Mr Netanyahu later in the day, with the two set to hold a news conference at 8.10pm local time (18.10 GMT).

He will travel to the occupied West Bank on Thursday to meet Palestinian Territory President Mahmoud Abbas.

USA officials say Mr Obama will try to coax the Palestinians and Israelis back to peace talks.

He will also seek to reassure Mr 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 deliberately minimised hopes of any major breakthroughs, a reversal from Obama’s first four years in office when aides said he would visit the Jewish state only if he had something concrete to accomplish.

Analysts say some of the lack of earlier diplomatic results, has been down to their relationship between the Democrat president and right wing prime minister.

“To tell the truth, they can’t stand one another,” a commentator for Israel’s Channel 10 television said in a live broadcast from the airport as Air Force One came to a halt.

Mr Obama president will inspect an Iron Dome anti-missile battery at Tel Aviv Ben Gurion airport before flying up to Jerusalem by helicopter for the start of his official meetings.

Seeking to connect directly with an often sceptical Israeli public, the president will make a speech to a group of carefully screened students on Thursday afternoon where he is expected to touch on major topics of concern, including Iran.

USA officials say Obama, the fifth sitting US president to travel to Israel, will urge further patience, with Washington worried that a threatened Israeli unilateral strike might drag the United States into another Middle East war.

President Obama Middle East Tour:US President will not welcome in West Bank

US President Barack Obama will then fly to the West Bank city of Ramallah to meet Mr Abbas and is expected to encourage the restart of negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians which broke down in 2010.

n the eve of the arrival hundreds of Palestinians rallied in Ramallah with placards saying ‘No Hope for Obama’. Angered by the American leniency towards the Israeli settlements, they expect little of his visit.

“Obama came just to beautify the ugly face that Bush left. The American governments work the same whether the president is Obama or Bush. The only difference is that one president smiles, while the other doesn’t,” Afu Agbaria, Arab Knesset member, told .

The third most pressing issue on the table for Obama’s time in the Middle East is the deteriorating situation in Syria, with little progress expected on that side either.

In Ramallah on Tuesday, Palestinian police scuffled with scores of demonstrators protesting against Obama’s visit.

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