Mitt Romney is planning a big foreign policy speech today
By Kasie Hunt, Associated Press
Republican
presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney steps
off his campaign plane in Weyers Cave, Va., Sunday, Oct. 7, 2012. (AP
Photo/Charles Dharapak)
WASHINGTON
(AP) — Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney is proposing the
U.S. take a more assertive role in Syria, put conditions on aid to Egypt
and tighten sanctions on Iran as he looks to use a planned foreign
policy address to paint President Barack Obama as a weak leader who has
limited America’s influence on global affairs.
Declaring that
“it’s time to change course in the Middle East” and accusing Obama of
“passivity,” Romney plans to call Monday for the U.S. to work with other
countries to arm rebels in Syria with weapons that can defeat the
“tanks, helicopters and fighter jets” that make up President Bashar
Assad’s army.
Romney also plans to call for tougher sanctions on
Iran than those already in place, and plans to say he will condition aid
to Egypt on continued support for its peace treaty with neighboring
Israel. He will emphasize his commitment to a two-state solution for
peace between Israelis and Palestinians, a process he dismissed during a
secretly videotaped fundraiser in May.
Romney plans to make the
comments at a major foreign policy speech at Virginia Military
Institute. His campaign released excerpts of his prepared speech in
advance. Aides previewing the speech in a conference call with reporters
emphasized that the Republican, who took a hawkish tone throughout the
GOP primary, would outline a “mainstream” foreign policy vision.
“Hope
is not a strategy. We cannot support our friends and defeat our enemies
in the Middle East when our words are not backed up by deeds,” Romney
plans to say in the address, adding that the U.S. should use its
influence “wisely, with solemnity and without false pride, but also
firmly and actively.”
Romney’s attempt to outline his approach as
commander in chief comes amid turmoil in the Middle East and North
Africa. Iran is believed to be pursuing a nuclear weapon, Syria is
locked in a civil war, peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians
are moribund, and anti-American protests have erupted in several
countries. Attackers linked to al-Qaida killed four Americans in
Benghazi, Libya, last month, including U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens.
The
Republican has given several foreign policy speeches throughout the
campaign, including one in Reno, Nev., ahead of a weeklong trip abroad
in the summer. That trip was fraught, with Romney offending his British
hosts by questioning their security preparations for the Olympic Games
and raising hackles among Palestinians who charged him with racism after
he said culture was part of the reason Israelis were more economically
successful than the neighboring Palestinians.
In
the fall, Romney faced criticism for his hurried and harsh reaction to
news of protests at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo and the near-simultaneous
attacks in Libya. Before the administration knew of Stevens’ death,
Romney criticized Obama for sympathizing with the attackers. In the
aftermath, top Republicans — including Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., the
2008 presidential nominee — urged Romney to give a speech laying out his
vision for U.S. foreign policy.
The Obama campaign dismissed Romney’s planned Monday address as a rehashed attempt to fix past blunders.
“We
are not going to be lectured by someone who’s been an unmitigated
disaster on foreign policy every time he sticks his toe in the foreign
policy waters,” campaign spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters aboard Air
Force One on Sunday. The campaign prepared a TV ad calling Romney
“reckless” and “amateurish” on foreign policy questions. Obama’s aides
also insisted Romney’s speech included few specifics that were markedly
different from the president’s own record.
While Obama has held an
edge in polls on handling foreign policy issues, Republican aides say
the Benghazi attack — and ensuing questions about possible intelligence
failures and lax security at the Libya consulate — has given Romney a
new opportunity to criticize the president.
Now, following a
strong debate performance, Romney will give the speech at the alma mater
of former Secretary of State George Marshall, the architect of the
Marshall Plan that rebuilt Europe in the wake of World War II. In the
conference call previewing the speech, aides pointed to that connection
to illustrate Romney’s vision of leadership and engagement on the world
stage. The advisers cast Romney as part of a long tradition of statesmen
beginning with former President Harry Truman; adviser Rich Williamson
said Romney would offer a “bipartisan” approach while aide Eliot Cohen
referred to Romney as “very much in the mainstream of foreign policy.”
Romney’s
outline of an approach to Syria comes at a critical time in part
because the violence there has spilled over their border with Turkey.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta warned Saturday the conflict between
those neighboring countries could embroil the broader region.
Romney
aides said the candidate would not call for direct U.S. aid to arm the
Syrian rebels, but said he would support providing them with enough
force to force Assad from power. In the speech, Romney plans to
emphasize Iran’s ties to the Syrian government and insist the U.S.,
through allies, should “support the many Syrians who would deliver that
defeat to Iran rather than sitting on the sidelines.” That would allow
the U.S. to “develop influence with those forces in Syria that will one
day lead a country that sits at the heart of the Middle East.”
Obama’s
administration still seeks a peaceful political transition, even though
the president acknowledged in August that the likelihood of a soft
landing for Syria’s civil war “seems pretty distant.”
Obama called
on Assad to step down more than a year ago and has sought consensus at
the United Nations on a diplomatic power-transfer plan, but has been
stymied repeatedly by Russia and China. Obama has stepped up U.S.
humanitarian aid and nonlethal assistance, now at a combined $175
million, to the political opposition.
But he has opposed directly providing weapons to the rebels or using U.S. air power to prevent Syrian jets from flying.
The
administration says U.S. arms assistance would further militarize Syria
and make it even harder to stabilize the country after Assad’s
downfall, which it insists is inevitable. And it says it still doesn’t
know the different fighting groups well enough to provide them guns,
considering the small but growing influence of Islamist extremists among
their ranks.
__
Associated Press writer Steve Peoples in
Lexington, Va., White House Correspondent Ben Feller and writer Bradley
Klapper in Washington contributed to this report.
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