OCCUPIED JERUSALEM – US presidential candidate Mitt Romney spoke aggressively Sunday about protecting Israel from Iranian nuclear threats and suggested that he was open to breaking with US policy dating to 1967 by moving the United States embassy to occupied Jerusalem if the Israelis asked. Israel is the second of three stops on an international trip for Romney intended to burnish his foreign policy credentials before he claims the Republican presidential nomination at his party's national convention in Tampa, Florida, in late August. Romney's speech, delivered 5,000 miles from the US soil, was clearly designed not only for Israelis but more importantly it was aimed at appealing to evangelical voters at home and to cut into Obama's support among American Jews. A Gallup survey of Jewish voters released Friday showed Obama with a 68-25 edge over Romney. While Romney has been highly critical of President Barack Obama's policy toward Iran and the presumed threat to Israel, he has offered no specifics about how his policy would be substantially different. But on the issue of the location of the US embassy in Israel, which is in Tel Aviv, Romney told CNN that he thought the US embassy should be moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem if the Israelis make that request. The Israelis have repeatedly sought such a move. “My understanding is the policy of our nation has been a desire to move our embassy ultimately to the capital (Jerusalem),” he said, adding, “I would only want to do so and to select the timing in accordance with the government of Israel.” Romney spoke in the aftermath of a statement by one of his top foreign policy advisers who declared that Romney “would respect” an Israeli decision to launch a unilateral strike on Iran's nuclear facilities. The United States, many of its European allies and Israel say Iran is trying to build a nuclear weapon. Iran says its uranium enrichment is part of a peaceful domestic nuclear program for energy and medical research. So far all attempts to negotiate an end to the enrichment program have failed. Israel fears that Iran soon will have moved its enrichment facilities into impregnable underground locations, meaning time is running out to destroy them with aerial bombing. – Agencies
