(Ynet) — Ahead of his first official trip outside the United States, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney accused President Barack Obama of “shabby treatment” of Israeli leaders, and promised to be firm against Iran.

“President Obama is fond of lecturing Israel’s leaders,” Romney said Tuesday in his first speech as an official presidential candidate. “He was even caught by a microphone deriding them. He has undermined their position, which was tough enough as it was. And even at the United Nations, to the enthusiastic applause of Israel’s enemies, he spoke as if our closest ally in the Middle East was the problem.

“The people of Israel deserve better than what they have received from the leader of the free world. And the chorus of accusations, threats, and insults at the United Nations should never again include the voice of the President of the United States.”

Romney told a convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Nevada that the US cannot maintain neutrality in the Middle East, but opt to fight the Jihadists in the region. He implied that he intends to demand Egypt to maintain the peace treaty with Israel in return for aid funding, among other conditions.

Romney promised to prevent Iran from producing a nuclear weapon and said, “There must be a full suspension of any enrichment, whatsoever, period.”

He vowed to “use every means necessary” to protect the US and the region from a nuclear Islamic Republic.

“This is very simple: If you don’t want America to be the strongest nation on Earth, I am not your president,” Romney added. “You have that president today.”

HT: Jon