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| Mitt Romney Republican Party nominee for President upcoming polls [File Photo] |
Jerusalem: Mitt Romney, the man expected to be the Republican Party nominee and Barack Obama rival for U.S. president on Sunday visited Israel capital and offered prayer on the solemn Jewish holiday of Tisha B’av in Western Wall.
It was during an appearance with Israeli President Shimon Peres that Romney made his statement on Iran.
Romney also met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is also a personal friend of Mr Romney's.
Expressing his concern over the issue of nuclear arms Romney said, "We are very concerned about the development of nuclear capacity on the part of Iran and feel it is unacceptable for Iran to become a nuclear armed nation. The threat it would pose to Israel, to the region and to the world is incomparable and unacceptable."
With his visit to Jerusalem, one of Judaism’s holiest sites is expected to pledge closer ties between the US and Israel if elected.
Romney will be hoping that burnishing his pro-Israel credentials will help him among key constituencies in a tight race with Mr Obama, analysts say.
Romney says that Obama has undermined Israel and supported its enemies.
Iran has reportedly said its nuclear program is for peaceful research, but foreign experts believed that its uranium-enrichment program was designed to bring it to the brink of a nuclear weapons capability, and some believed it was only a matter of months away from building a nuclear bomb if its leaders wanted to.
After meeting with Romney earlier in the visit, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also appeared to indicate he is focused on sanctions and the threat of military action to try to motivate Iran to change its nuclear policy.
Talks between Iran and a U.N.-designated team of countries have been demoted to the “expert” level because senior negotiators were not able to make any progress in two recent meetings. But the talks have not officially broken down.
Romney is to be formally nominated by the Republican Party at the end of next month, and he is expected to run a close race with the Democratic Party's candidate, President Barack Obama, in the November election. The votes of Israel supporters will be important to both candidates, but support for Israel is among many foreign policy issues on which there is little or no difference between members of the two parties.