Netanyahu and Romney in Jerusalem (Photo: Avi Ohayon, GPO)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday hosted US Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney in his chambers.
Meanwhile, one of Romney's senior aides said that he would back Israel if it were to decide it had to use military force to stop Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.
"If Israel has to take action on its own, in order to stop Iran from developing that capability, the governor would respect that decision," Romney's senior national security aide Dan Senor told reporters traveling with the candidate.
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."
President Barack Obama meets with senior advisors in the Oval Office on July 18. Pictured, from left, are: Chris Mizelle, Director for Russia and Central Asia, NSS; National Security Advisor Tom Donilon; Chief of Staff Jack Lew; and Denis McDonough, Deputy National Security Advisor. (Photo credit: White House/Pete Souza)
The Prime Minister’s Office on Sunday denied a report that a senior US official recently showed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the Obama administration’s plans for a possible strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities.
“Nothing in the article is correct,” a senior PMO official told The Times of Israel on Sunday, moments after Netanyahu met with Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney in Jerusalem.
Haaretz reporter Barak Ravid on Sunday quoted a “senior American official” saying that Netanyahu hosted US National Security Adviser Tom Donilon for a “a three-hour dinner” during which Donilon shared Washington’s contingency plans for a potential strike on Iran. Ravid wrote that Donilon’s visit in Jerusalem two weeks ago was “the most significant so far between American and Israeli officials here in recent weeks.”
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta heads today to the Middle East where tensions are rising over the democratic transition in Egypt, turmoil in Syria and Iran’s suspected advances toward nuclear weapons.
His trip to Tunisia, Egypt, Israel and Jordan has a security agenda, including new concerns about Syrian chemical weapons, along with election-season political stakes. Panetta is scheduled to arrive in Israel on the heels of a visit by Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who has appealed to Jewish voters by attacking President Barack Obama as lacking sufficient commitment to Israel’s security.
With a lack of progress in the negotiations, “the clocks in Washington and Tel Aviv are out of sync” on the timing for military action, said David Makovsky, a Middle East specialist at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. The Obama administration’s strategy is to see if Iran backs down as international sanctions increasingly hurt its economy, saying there is time for military action as a last alternative.
Syrian troops at a besieged military base just north of Aleppo fired out in three directions on Sunday in the face of a rebel onslaught, part of a high-stakes battle for a city where a top regional leader claimed war crimes are being committed.
For days, anti-government forces have been trying to take over the northern Syrian city, where many residents appear to support their cause, only to be answered by fierce fighting by the Syrian military.
The fight for the military base is one of many hotspots of violence raging around Aleppo, which is the commercial and cultural center of the Middle Eastern nation and its largest city.
Putin’s world oil domination plan .... Unsettled times in Israel ... Window closing on Israel’s decision on Iran ... Hamas and Israel amid regional turmoil: Hamas leaders go to Egypt for meetings ... Many examples on how Hamas influence is increasing in and around Israel ....
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