Mitt Romney accused U.S. President Barack Obama of lacking resolve regarding the Middle East, Israel and Iran on Sunday, in an op-ed published by the Wall Street Journal.
The Republican Party candidate for president wrote in the article that “disturbing developments” that have been sweeping the greater Middle East of late “are not, as President Obama says, mere ‘bumps in the road.’ They are major issues that put our security at risk.”
“Yet, amid this upheaval,” wrote Romney, “our country seems to be at the mercy of events rather than shaping them. We’re not moving them in a direction that protects our people or our allies.”
“And that’s dangerous”, he continued. “If the Middle East descends into chaos, if Iran moves toward nuclear breakout, or if Israel’s security is compromised, America could be pulled into the maelstrom.”
Romney also referred to the bloodshed in Syria, the rise to power of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, which he says compromises the peace treaty with Israel, the slaying of the U.S. ambassador to Libya “in a terrorist attack,” and that “in Iran, the ayatollahs continue to move full tilt toward nuclear-weapons capability, all the while promising to annihilate Israel.”
Furthermore, Romney wrote that in recent years, Obama has allowed the influence of the United States to wane, and, by “failing to maintain the elements of our influence and by stepping away from our allies… has heightened the prospect of conflict and instability.”
As a policy solution, the head of the Republican Party held that the U.S. must “apply a coherent strategy of supporting our partners in the Middle East,” including “restoring our credibility with Iran… placing no daylight between the United States and Israel… [and] using the full spectrum of our soft power to encourage liberty and opportunity for those who have for too long known only corruption and oppression.”
“The dignity of work and the ability to steer the course of their lives are the best alternatives to extremism”, he added.
Haaretz
