could we be next? i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." today we're coming to you live from cnn's jerusalem, israel. he left there live earlier today. he's now in poland with the president-elect. we're going to have a live report in the next hour from pole land. we begin this hour with my one-on-one interview with the republican presidential candidate. governor romney, thanks so much for joining us, in jerusalem. what a beautiful city. i'm sure you've been moved by what you've seen so far. >> it's a holy city, a city of a great and courageous people. my wife and i first came here in 1995 and have been here four times now. we're moved and inspired by what we see here. >> do you consider jerusalem to be the capital? >> yes, of course. jew res l >> would you move the embassy to jerusalem? >> it's long been the policy of have the nation's embassy in the capital. if i were president, i would want to take it in consultation with the leadership of the government, which exists at that time. so i would follow the same policy we have in the past. our embassy would be in the capital. but the timing of that is something i would want to work out with the government. >> with the government of israel? >> with the government of israel. >> but every government has asked them to recognize them. >> well, that would make the decision easy, but i would still want the communication with the government leaders. >> just to be precise. if you were president you would precise with the israeli government. if they said, please move the em bas, you would do that? >> my understanding is the polltisy of our nation has been a desire to move the embassy ultimately to the capital. that's something which i would agree with. but i would only want to do so and select the timing in accordance with the government of israel. >> you know that every u.s. president since '67, since the six-day war in 1967, behind you in the old city of jerusalem, you see the beautiful walls there, and we're not far away. but the line was in front of the old walls. but since then every president from nixon to lbj, carter, ronald reagan, bushes, president clinton, now obama considers east jerusalem, including the old city behind you to be occupied territory. not part of israel. would you change that? >> i'm not going to talk about the borders. the decision as to where the borders would be as we move to a two-state solution, which i support. that's a decision on borders that will be worked out by israelis and the palestinians. i hope it's a process which is ongoing and ultimately successful. as to the exact negotiation in borders, i'll leave that to the deciding parties themselves. >> you just visited the western wall. one of the oldest sites in jerusalem. we saw the pictures, the video. do you consider that to be part of israel? >> it is certainly part of israel. the decision as we move to a two-state solution as to what would be part of israel and what would be part of a palestinian state is something to be negotiated by the palestinians and the israelis. i believe that the key to that negotiation is the recognition that there will be a palestinian state, and there will be a jewish state. >> and so you support a two-state solution. do you support a two-state solution as an israeli state and palestinian state, basically along the pre-67 lines with what are called mutually agreed swapped? >> i support a two-state solution as the appropriate direction for the solution of the hostility, if you will, that exists between peoples here. but i also recognize the borders will have to be negotiated by the respective parties, and the original 67 borders will, by themselves, are not defensible, indefensible, from the standpoint of israel, and therefore there will be have to be adjustments to reshape the solution that is stoatisfactoryo both parties. >> you say go in and start negotiating? >> i'm not being that specific. i'm saying that there will be borders that have to be negotiated, and what the starting point is something which will be decided by the parties involved with the ending. >> could you see the future palestinian state -- and you support a two-state solution, palestine and israel having east jerusalem as the capital? >> i don't want to negotiate for the parties. my view is to standby the ally, israel, to support them in the negotiating posture. i recognize the postures of the respective parties will be different than the ultimate solution. but i'm not going to give up israeli bargaining positions from the beginning, nor demand the palestinians a certain outcome. my view is the united states' role is to standby the ally. to show a dime's worth of distance diplomatically between us and israel, to work to bring the parties together and to seek progress, but not the weaken the prospects of progress and an agreement at some point, that might be different of our ally. >> would you ask israel to freeze settlement activity on the east bay? >> i believe the issue is something which should be discussed in private by the american president and our allies. again, when we show diplomatic distance tweens ourselves and our ally, i think we encourage people who oppose that relationship, to seek other means to achieve their ends. i think the best thing we can do is to communicate very clearly to the palestinians and our friends that the way to peace is for them to meet and resolve their differences, rather than to look us to to resolve the distance or to look to the united nations to do it. i done think my role, particularly as a candidate, is to begin suggesting what the terms of an agreement might look like. >> let's talk about iran. you've been robust in saying you will not, as president, accept iran with nuclear weapons. so be specific. what would you do to make sure that would never happen? >> well, i spoke about five years ago at the conference and laid out seven steps that i thought were necessary. one of the steps, of course, was crippling substantiati crippling sanctions. it's taken a long time to put those sanctions in place, but that's a positive step. there are steps that have not yet been followed. one other step is to make sure we have credible military options that are available to us, if no other of the initiatives is successful. clearly we all hope that diplomatic and economic pressures put on iran will dissuade them from becoming a nuclear capability nation. but if all else fails, we, of course, have to keep the military option available. >> there are plans in place at the pentagon for the military option already. i know if you've been briefed on all that kind of stuff, but they do have plans to do that if the president of the united states were to give order. >> my guess is neither you nor i have full access to all the plans that might exist for military options. either on the part of the united states or our friends in israel. but i certainly hope our military under the direction of the president has, in fact, prepared a whole series of contingency plans, not only to prevent iran from becoming nuclear, but to respond for iran to become more belligerent in its efforts. so i can't speak for the military having not -- having seen their plans at this point. >> at some point you will be briefed by u.s. intelligence after the convention. >> after the convention i'll get a more full briefing on classified material, yes. >> i assume at that point you'll hear what i've been told -- i don't know what they are. but there are all sorts of military options. but just to be precise, if the political sanctions, the diplomatic sanctions were and iran is about to develop a military bomb, the u.s. would provide the military strength? >> i think i've said it as clearly as our president has. again, i don't want to make foreign policy on foreign soil or say something different than our nation. our president has said and i have said it's unacceptable for iran to become nuclear. that would mean if all other options were to fail, and they have not been all exercised. they've not all been executed at the most extreme level, but if all other options, diplomatic, political, economic fail, then a military option is one which would be available to the president of the united states. >> let's talk about syria for a moment. you want bashar al-assad to go. what would you do specifically to make that happen? >> again, wolf, because i'm on foreign soil, and it's it's long been a policy to leave politics, i'm not going through specific foreign policy prescriptions for syria, other than to say that the removal of assad as the leader of syria is a high priority for the nation, as you know. both agree with that. the distribution of chemical weapons, which exist in some large measure in syria. we do not see a unified opposition having been formed yet in syria. an action being taken of a is being led by turkey, saudi arabia and others. i'm referring to counsel and advice. but our nation is involved with other nations in helping move a process that will stop st slaughter of incident life in syria and ultimately have a more respective form of government. >> we'll have a lot more of my conversation with mitt romney at the new 6:00 p.m. eastern hour. that was part one. part two will air -- even though he held a fund-raiser here in je ruse lem earlier today, romney says the current political fund raising rules in the united states, and i'm quoting him now, don't make a lot of sense. much more on my interview with mitt romney coming up later. also another big political story that we're following today. bill clinton has a huge role at the upcoming democratic convention. standby for details that are just coming in. and a surprise new -- new surprise about barack obama's family history. we have some fascinating information that's just been uncovered. also, as mitt romney moves onto poland. two top israeli leaders in jerusalem in interviews held separately in the day. they are both lavishly praising president obama and his support for israel. standby. all the interviews and a lot more coming up right here in "the situation room." this is new york state. we built the first railway, the first trade route to the west, the greatest empires. then, some said, we lost our edge. well today, there's a new new york state. one that's working to attract businesses and create jobs. a place where innovation meets determination... and businesses lead the world. the new new york works for business. find out how it can work for yours at thenewny.com. ♪ [music plays] ♪ [music plays] to experience the lexus performance line... including the gs and is. 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[ revving continues ] ♪ during the golden opportunity sales event, get great values on some of our newest models. this is the pursuit of perfection. get great values on some of our newest models. you see us, at the start of the day. on the company phone list that's a few names longer. you see us bank on busier highways. on once empty fields. everyday you see all the ways all of us at us bank are helping grow our economy. lending more so companies and communities can expand, grow stronger and get back to work. everyday you see all of us serving you, around the country, around the corner. us bank. mitt romney visits to london produced embarrassing headlines for the presidential candidate. his just completed trip to israel and jerusalem presented controversy as well. let's bring in our chief political analyst gloria borger. she's back in washington. gloria, i'm curious. i'm in jerusalem. you're in washington. how has mitt romney's visit in the middle east played back in the united states? >> let's say he's getting the headlines he wanted, unlike the headlines he got when he visited in london. what he managed to do was sort of distance himself from the president of the united states, presenting himself as proper, for example, when it comes to iran, a very strong ally of israel, without taking on the president directly. as you said multiple times in your interview that he won do that. but he did adopt the israeli line about preventing iran from having -- not only having nuclear weapons, but having the capability of developing nuclear weapons. so a very tough line on that. a very tough line on jerusalem. but also, wolf, he didn't endear himself to the palestinians. he made comments in which he said the lack of progress in the lands and he pointed out the difference between israel's economic progress and those lands, and that did not endear him to those folks. but let me ask you a question, wolf because you interviewed not only mitt romney himself but the defense minister and who barack and the israeli president shamone pere i was interested in what they said to you about president obama. i'm going to play a little bit of that for you. >> but they should tell you on the tv station what president obama is doing in regard to our security more than anything anything i can confirm in the past. >> more than any other president. lbj, bill clinton, or george w. bush. >> yeah. for our intelligence. the sharing of sorts in a very open way. president obama on the nation's security. i think it's a highly story record from his point of view. >> wolf, how do you scare this? you have netanyahu, who is o fusive about mitt romney. what do you make of that? >> well, both of them told me, the prime minister, the president of israel who worked in the defense establishment of israel for so many years, a former prime minister. as well as the current defense minister, who is a former prime minister of israel, both said the u.s./israeli military to military velgs ship right now. intelligence community to intelligence community relationship right now is excellent. it's as good if not better than it's ever been before. and they were extremely complimentary to president obama. both of them, and even as romney was still on basically the ground in israel. he was just getting ready to leave to fly off to poland. i was surprised by the enthusiastic praise they had for president obama, given some of the problems that president obama and prime minister netanyahu had in terms of their own personal relationship. a lot of us remember the visit that netanyahu had to the oval office and the awkward moments the two of them had. as far as the two israeli leaders are concerned, and we'll have more of the interviews later, they went out of their way to praise the president of the united states as a strong, strong supporter of israel. do you think mitt romney may have gone too far to a general audience. certainly might appeal to a republican party or evangelicals. do you think he might have put himself out there a little bit? >> you know, on iran, i listened very closely to what he said and in the speech yesterday, and what he said in the interview with me. i didn't hear a lot of difference between what he was saying, not his aides, but what romney was saying and what president obama is saying. both say th will never accept containment of a nuclear powered iran. they will do whatever it takes to make sure iran doesn't become a nuclear military power, and with that kind of capability. they hope it can be done through economic and diplomatic sanctions. they are not ruling out a military option if everything breaks down. so i didn't hear a lot of difference between what president obama says about iran and what mitt romney says about iran, but that was just my analysis. >> thanks so much, wolf. back to you. we'll probably have to wait for the presidential debates. don't you think? >> there will be one presidential debate. that will strictly be focused, in october, on foreign policy and national security. it will be interesting to hear if there is a significant difference. zbl gloria borger, thanks very much. that's coming up in the next hour during the 5:00 eastern hour. he tells me israel, will in his words, settle the account with those who are behind the bombing of a bus carrying israeli tourists in bulgaria. also a big sur prize in president obama's family history. what the genealogy experts now say they have found. that and a lot more coming up here in "the situation room." 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