Romney: Ahmadinejad is ‘voice of unspeakable evil’

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney spoke out against Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Tuesday, calling the Iranian president a “voice of unspeakable evil.”

Speaking in New York at the Clinton Global Initiative, Romney singled out Ahmadinejad toward the end of a speech that focused on foreign policy, especially regarding the Middle East.

His comment came a day after the Iranian president, in New York for the United Nations General Assembly, said Israel had “no roots” in the Middle East, and that the Israelis “represent minimal disturbances that come into the picture and are then eliminated,” and following comments from senior Iranian military officers threatening war with Israel.

Romney’s main focus in the speech was to lay out his foreign policy objective of promoting economic freedom in the undeveloped world, including the Middle East. Saying that rising extremism in the Muslim world was fueled by a growing young and unemployed population, Romney vowed to make job creation a key element of his foreign policy as president.

Romney also said he would condition foreign aid on recipient governments removing barriers to free markets at home and free trade internationally, calling the spread of economic freedom the engine for the spread of prosperity in the Western world.