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U.S. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney speaks in the rain during a rally in Newport News, Virginia, on Oct. 8. (Jim Watson/AFP/GettyImages)
Republican presidential challenger Mitt Romney accused the Obama administration of weakening the United State’s stature in the Middle East, saying that the region has become a more dangerous place since he took office.
Speaking in Lexington, Virginia, on Tuesday, Romney said, “We cannot support our friends and defeat our enemies in the Middle East when our words are not backed up by deeds,” reported The Washington Post.
Romney said Obama’s strategy in the Middle East is full of “passivity,” while not offering many specifics. “I believe that if America does not lead, others will,” he added, “others who do not share our interests and our values.”
But Obama’s campaign slammed Romney’s statements, describing the policies of the former Massachusetts governor as “erratic, unsteady and irresponsible,” reported The New York Times.
Romney’s statements are “full of platitude and free of substance,” said former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright in a telephone conference. “His position on Libya has no credibility since he’s been both for and against our Libya policy,” two of Obama’s foreign policy advisors, Michèle Flournoy and Colin Kahl, wrote in a memo to reporters obtained by the New York Times.
The Republican presidential candidate also said he would arm some rebels fighting against the Syrian regime in the country’s civil war.
“ I will work with our partners to identify and organize those members of the opposition who share our values and ensure they obtain the arms they need to defeat Assad’s tanks, helicopters, and fighter jets,” he said, according to the Weekly Standard publication.
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