McCain criticizes Obama on Iran, Iraq

Monday, June 02, 2008

By LIBBY QUAID, Associated Press Writer

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WASHINGTON —

Republican John McCain warned Monday that a nuclear-armed Iran would threaten Israel and cautioned that withdrawing troops from Iraq would weaken the entire Middle East as he courted Jewish voters wary of Democrat Barack Obama.

"The threats to Israel's security are large and growing, and America's commitment must grow as well," the likely Republican presidential nominee said in a speech, expressing strong support for a U.S. ally and raised doubts about Obama.

McCain is making a play for Jewish voters while Obama, who trailed Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton by 8 percentage points among them in the Democratic primaries, is working to reassure members of this constituency who have expressed some unease about his candidacy.

In the speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, McCain called Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons an unacceptable risk and chastised Obama anew for his expressed willingness to meet with leaders of U.S. enemy nations, including Iran.

"Rather than sitting down unconditionally with the Iranian president or supreme leader in the hope that we can talk sense into them, we must create the real-world pressures that will peacefully but decisively change the path they are on," McCain said.

Obama has argued that McCain is advocating the same policy as President Bush and that the approach is not working, saying in a recent Fox News interview: "Iran is stronger now than when George Bush took office ... And the fact that we have not talked to them means that they have been developing nuclear weapons, funding Hamas, funding Hezbollah."

But McCain said it is wrong to suggest Iran is trying to develop a nuclear program because the U.S. won't engage in presidential-level talks. The Arizona senator said the Clinton administration in particular tried to engage Iran for two years, even lifting some sanctions, to no avail.

"Even so, we hear talk of a meeting with the Iranian leadership offered up as if it were some sudden inspiration, a bold new idea that somehow nobody has ever thought of before," McCain said.

A Gallup poll released Monday found that two-thirds of people said they believe it would be a good idea for the president to meet with the leaders of enemy countries. About six in 10 favor the president meeting specifically with the leader of Iran, including most Democrats and independents and about half of Republicans.

At a forum later in Nashville, Tenn., McCain was asked how he would respond, as president, if Iran were to bomb Israel. "We will not allow a second Holocaust," McCain said but did not elaborate.

Instead, McCain called for sanctions to pressure Iran to abandon its nuclear ambitions. McCain seeks to severely limit Iranian imports of gasoline, to impose targeted sanctions such as denying visas and to launch a worldwide campaign to divest from companies doing business with Iran. He also wants financial sanctions on the Central Bank of Iran, which he said aids in terrorism and weapons proliferation.

In his speech, McCain also criticized Obama for opposing a measure to designate Iran's Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization responsible for killing U.S. troops in Iraq. Obama's campaign said he worried the measure would bolster the effort to keep troops in Iraq and that he backed a similar measure, and it questioned why McCain thinks he would get better results than Bush has.

"He promises to continue a war in Iraq that has emboldened Iran and strengthened its hand," Obama spokesman Hari Sevugan said. "He promises sanctions that the Bush administration has been unable to persuade the (United Nations) Security Council to deliver."

On Iraq, McCain noted that Obama has called for a troop withdrawal and said that strategy would lead to catastrophe, a failed state in the Middle East and terrorists rejoicing at a U.S. defeat.

"Allowing a potential terrorist sanctuary would profoundly affect the security of the United States, Israel, and our other friends, and would invite further intervention from Iraq's neighbors, including an emboldened Iran," McCain said. "We must not let this happen. We must not leave the region to suffer chaos, terrorist violence and a wider war."

Obama speaks to the group Wednesday.

"You will not see, under my presidency, any slackening in commitment to Israel's security," Obama said in an interview last month with The Atlantic magazine.