Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina says “on day one” of her presidency, she would call Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reaffirm U.S. support for the Jewish state.
It is “vitally important that we have a discussion on how America must lead in the world,” she said. That’s why “on day one … I would call Bibi Netanyahu to reassure him that the U.S. will always stand with Israel.”
She said likely Democratic nominee, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has “been wrong on these issues.”
Fiorina laid out her foreign policy priorities at a forum hosted by RealClearPolitics in Colorado on Friday, after being asked about the latest attacks by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria in France, Tunisia and Kuwait.
After calling the Israeli prime minister, Fiorina said she would begin drawing up plans to confront Russia’s war-like posturing, provide the Ayatollahs in Iran with an ultimatum on their nuclear ambitions, and lend greater support to Arab allies in their fight against the Islamic State.
She would hold a “summit” with Arab allies in the Middle East to reassure support in arms and training. “We need to stand with our Arab allies,” she said. “They will stand and fight,” if they have the U.S. backing them, she added.
This “needs to be done soon,” she stated, adding that the world is a “tragic place when the U.S. is not leading.”
She will then phone the Ayatollahs in Iran, she said, telling the Islamic Republic that “there’s a new deal” on addressing that country’s nuclear power ambitions. She would lay out an ultimatum: “Until you open all facilities” for inspections, “we will cut off” Iran’s ability to move money globally.
Fiorina said the U.S. has the power to do that, and should do that, suggesting the U.S. should act unilaterally if need be.
She would also begin drawing up plans to confront Russia by rebuilding the U.S. Sixth Fleet, arming Ukraine and America’s allies in Europe.
“I would not call [Russian leader Vladimir] Putin,” Fiorina said. She said there has been too much talk with Russia. Instead, she would begin aggressive defense exercises with American allies in the Baltic states that border the Russian Federation.
