Mitt Romney Sits Down With Greta Van Susteren in Israel
In an On the Record interview, Greta Van Susteren sat down presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney during his trip to Israel. Amid reports of US National Security Adviser Tom Donilon briefing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on a possible strike, is that a sign that the US is closer to war, or that Israel is closer to a war with Iran? Romney wouldn’t speculate based on the report, but did say, “We hope that those non-military options will be effective in keeping Iran from taking a course which would require other options.”
Romney expanded on his stance toward Iran, saying, “I think we have to execute all of the political, economic and diplomatic measures that are possible for the world to put pressure on Iran, to have them understand what it means to be crippled economically, diplomatically, by virtue of their nuclear ambitions. But at the same time, we recognize that if down the road, these sanctions are ineffective, that we have other options, and that it is unacceptable to America
and to the world for Iran to become a nuclear nation.”
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Van Susteren asked how the US government would make a decision regarding Iran down the road, given the recent history of intelligence pointing to Iraq having weapons of mass destruction, which turned out to be wrong. Romney answered that there is never 100 percent certainty, but said there are three parts that have to come together for Iran to have nuclear capability of a military nature.
Romney outlined the three parts to be, “sufficient enriched material that they could create bombs or a bomb. Second is a weaponization system and third, if the vehicle were going to be launched by rocket would be the kind of rocket that would take it someplace that could do the greatest damage. So the intelligence community has to look at all three of those sources, and give us the best information possible. That’s something which the president of the United States will have access to, and ultimately will have to make the decision as to when and whether Iran is about to become nuclear.”
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If Romney is elected president and Israel decides to take action against Iran, Van Susteren asked the candidate, will the US stand by their ally in an active military role or take a more supportive role. Romney said, “Well, I don’t want to be highly specific as to the nature of our military options down the road. I think it suffices to say that Israel has the right to defend itself.”
He continued, “Exactly how they would be exercised and who would exercise them and in what way, that’s something which we don’t want to signal to anybody else, and I certainly would not want to make foreign policy on foreign soil in any way trying to distinguish myself from the views that have already been expressed by our government.”
Moving to the conflict in Israeli-Palestinian, what does Romney think America should do? Romney said the two nations need to take a diplomatic stance and also, “Palestinians need to recognize that the course to the two-state solution is not through the United Nations or through the United States or through anyone else, but through a face to face series of negotiations with the Israelis.”
However, Romney says, “This is not something that we will impose from America. This is instead something we will encourage and facilitate, but it is up to Israelis and Palestinians to reach their own agreement and to find the two-state solution that we and our allies in Israel seek.”
