JERUSALEM — Standing on Israeli soil, U.S. presidential candidate Mitt Romney on Sunday declared Jerusalem to be the capital of the Jewish state and said the United States has “a solemn duty and a moral imperative” to block Iran from achieving nuclear-weapons capability.
“Make no mistake, the ayatollahs in Iran are testing our moral defenses. They want to know who will object and who will look the other way,” he said. “We will not look away nor will our country ever look away from our passion and commitment to Israel.”
Romney’s declaration that Jerusalem is “the capital of Israel” was matter-of-fact and in keeping with claims made by Israeli governments for decades.
Obama administration officials, in keeping with decades of official U.S. policy, are unwilling to make such statements because Palestinians also envision the city as the future capital of their hoped-for state. The United States, like other nations,maintains its embassy in Tel Aviv.
Romney did not say whether he would order the embassy moved if he wins the White House, but strongly suggested so in a CNN interview.
“My understanding is the policy of our nation has been a desire to move our embassy ultimately to the capital,” he said of Jerusalem, adding, “I would only want to do so and to select the timing in accordance with the government of Israel.”
His remarks on the subject during his speech drew a standing ovation from his audience, which included Sheldon Adelson, the American businessman who has said he will donate millions to help elect Romney to the White House.
Romney’s embrace of Israel was on display earlier in the day when he met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other leaders. He also visited the Western Wall, Judaism’s holiest site, where he was mobbed by worshippers. In addition, Romney met with Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.
In his remarks, Romney steered clear of overt criticism of President Barack Obama, even though he said the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran “has only become worse” in the past five years.
“It is sometimes said that those who are the most committed to stopping the Iranian regime from securing nuclear weapons are reckless and provocative and inviting war. The opposite is true. We are the true peacemakers,” he said.
Israel is the second of three stops on an international trip for Romney in the weeks before he claims the Republican nomination at his party’s national convention in Tampa, Fla. He flew to the Middle East from Britain.
He heads today to Poland, where he will meet with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, see former Polish President Lech Walesa and visit the site of the first shots fired in World War II.
Four years ago, then-U.S. Sen. Obama also visited Israel as a candidate, part of a five nation trip meant to establish his own foreign policy credentials.
In his speech, Romney said Syrian President Bashar Assad “desperately clings to power” in Damascus in the face of an attempted overthrow, but he did not call for his removal.
He noted that Egypt is now headed by an “Islamist president, chosen in a Democratic election. ... The international community must use its considerable influence to ensure that the new government honors the peace agreement with Israel that was signed by the government of Anwar Sadat” more than three decades ago, he said.
A goal of Romney’s overseas trip is to demonstrate his confidence on the world stage, but his stop in Israel also was designed to appeal to evangelical voters at home and to cut into Obama’s support among Jewish voters and donors.
Romney and other Republicans have said Obama is insufficiently supportive of Israel, noting statements the president has made about settlements and his handling of Iran’s nuclear program.
Tehran is closer to developing nuclear-weapons capability than before, Romney said. “Preventing that outcome must be our highest national security priority.”
Obama’s former press secretary, Robert Gibbs, told ABC’s This Week that the administration has delayed Iran’s nuclear program. The president has imposed U.S. penalties against Iran and worked to toughen strictures applied by other nations. There have been numerous published reports of a coordinated U.S.-Israeli cyber-attack that caused damage to Iranian equipment vital to creating weapons-grade nuclear material.
Even so, Netanyahu said before the speech that “all the sanctions and diplomacy so far have not set back the Iranian program by one iota.”
Meanwhile, an Israeli newspaper reported Sunday that the Obama administration’s top security official has briefed Israel on U.S. plans for a possible attack on Iran, seeking to reassure it that Washington is prepared to act militarily should diplomacy and sanctions fail to pressure Tehran to abandon its nuclear enrichment program.
A senior Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss confidential talks, said the article in the Haaretz daily was incorrect.
Haaretz said national security adviser Tom Donilon laid out the plans before Netanyahu at a dinner during a visit to Israel earlier this month. It cited an unidentified senior American official as the source of its report.
The American official also said Donilon shared information on U.S. weapons that could be used for such an attack, and on the U.S. military’s ability to reach Iranian nuclear facilities buried deep underground, the newspaper said. It cited another U.S. official involved in the talks with Israel as concluding that “the time for a military operation against Iran has not yet come.”
The Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss a confidential meeting, said, “Nothing in the article is correct. Donilon did not meet the prime minister for dinner, he did not meet him one-on-one, nor did he present operational plans to attack Iran.” He had no information when asked if Donilon had discussed any kind of attack plans with any Israeli official. Haaretz said another Israeli official attended part of the meeting.
The U.S. Embassy had no immediate comment. Haaretz cited Tommy Vietor, a spokesman for the U.S. National Security Council, as declining to comment on the confidential discussion between Netanyahu and Donilon. The White House also declined comment.
Information for this article was contributed by Kasie Hunt and staff members of The Associated Press and by Jodi Rudoren, Ashley Parker and David E. Sanger of The New York Times.
Front Section, Pages 1 on 07/30/2012