Washington (dpa) – The Republicans vying to face President Barack Obama in November elections blasted him in a debate late Wednesday for not going far enough on Iran and Syria. “Syria is a puppet state of Iran,” former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum told a debate in Mesa, Arizona ahead of primary elections there and in Michigan next week. Santorum, who has surged in recent opinion polls after winning a handful of small states in the state-by-state nominating process to pick a party candidate, said it was “remarkable” that Obama was so timid in dealing with the situation in Syria. “This president has obviously a very big problem in standing up to the Iranians in any form,” he said. Rival Mitt Romney described Syria as a key ally of Iran and said the United States ought to do more to capitalize on the troubled regime of President Bashar al-Assad. “The key ally of Iran, Syria has a leader that's in real trouble. And we ought to grab a hold of that like's it's the best thing we've ever seen,” he said, outlining a plan to work with those within Syria and regional allies to embolden the Syrian rebels. “This is a critical time for us,“ Romney said. “If we can turn Syria and Lebanon away from Iran, we can finally have the capacity to get Iran to pull back.” BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/TKyqY Tags: Election, Obama, Romney, Santorum Section: Iran, Latest News, North America, Syria
