Obama to meet Jordan’s king Abdullah in California desert.

Obama to meet Jordan’s king Abdullah in California desert.(AA).

President Barack Obama will launch a new round of Middle East diplomacy Friday in a plush oasis in the arid California desert, hosting a Valentine’s Day summit with Jordan’s King Abdullah II.

Obama and the king will swap the piles of snow in Washington for the Sunnylands retreat at the Annenberg estate in Palm Springs, to discuss issues including the pitiful torrent of refugees pouring into Jordan from Syria.

The meeting will be the first of a trio of meetings between Obama and key Middle East leaders in the coming weeks.

On March 3, the U.S. president will sit down at the White House for his latest encounter with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has made no secret of his skepticism over an interim deal that Washington and other world powers reached with Iran on its nuclear program.

Then at the end of March, he will travel to Saudi Arabia, for what is likely to be a sharp personal reminder that Saudi King Abdullah shares Netanyahu’s doubts about Obama’s strategy of testing the sincerity of an Iranian diplomatic opening.

While Obama enjoys his stag weekend, his wife Michelle and daughters Malia and Sasha reportedly have their own mini-break planned elsewhere.

Presidents, including Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush have loved the links at Sunnylands since the 1960s.

The course is a nine-hole layout, but two sets of tees allow for a varied 18-hole round to a par of 72.

Obama will be making his second visit to the resort as president. Last year, he held an informal shirt-sleeves summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping, and stayed on for a few rounds of golf. Hmmmm.....How many Syrian fugitives from Jordan are you taking Hussein? I've got 700,000 on my hands.Read the full story here.