Mitt Romney would back an Israeli military strike on Iran to stop the country from developing nuclear capabilities, a top campaign aide said.
In a foreign policy speech in Jerusalem today, the Republican presidential candidate plans to strike a tougher stance with Iran and stress the importance of the U.S.-Israeli relationship, saying preventing the Islamic republic from developing the technology to build a bomb must be the "highest national security priority." He will also express his support for unilateral Israeli action against Iran.
"If Israel has to take action on its own, in order to stop Iran from developing the capability, the governor would respect that decision," Dan Senor, a foreign policy adviser traveling with Romney in Israel, told reporters today.
The former Massachusetts governor has called for the U.S. to insist that Iran cease all enrichment of uranium -- rather than limit it to 5 percent, as administration officials have indicated they may accept -- as part of any agreement on its nuclear program.
"Make no mistake: the ayatollahs in Tehran are testing our moral defenses," Romney will say, according to excerpts of his speech released by the campaign. "My message to the people of Israel and the leaders of Iran is one and the same: I will not look away, and neither will my country."
Romney is meeting with top Israeli and Palestinian leaders today as part of a six-day international tour designed to shore up his foreign-policy credentials abroad and woo Jewish voters at home.
The visit plunges Romney, a relative foreign-policy novice, into one of the world's most politicized conflicts. He arrives in Israel at a time of heightened tensions, with leaders reassessing their regional strategy in the wake of escalating violence in Syria and the July 18 suicide attack on an Israeli tourists in Bulgaria.
Much of the country is shut down to commemorate the Jewish holiday of Tisha B'Av, a day of mourning and fasting that marks the commemoration of the destruction of the First and Second Jewish temples of Jerusalem.