McCain: Embarrass Russia, China into Iran sanctions if need be

Local Editor, 19-04-2010

American Senator John McCain said Sunday that he wasn't surprised by the secret memo from the U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates warning that the U.S. lacks an effective long-term policy to deal with Iran's nuclear program.

"I didn't need a secret memo from Mr. Gates to ascertain that," McCain said on "Fox News Sunday." "We do not have a coherent policy. I think that's pretty obvious."

The senator said that the sanctions threats against Iran, even dating back to the George W. Bush administration, were ringing hollow.

"We have to be willing to pull the trigger on significant sanctions," he said. "And then we have to make plans for whatever contingencies follow if those sanctions are not effective."

McCain even said that if need be, it would mean going forward on sanctions without Russia and China.

"So why don't we get our European allies together and let's impose sanctions from that aspect of it?" he said. "Maybe that would embarrass somehow or force the Russians and Chinese to act in a more cooperative fashion."

"I think that we -- it's pretty clear that the ‘Israelis' cannot live with a nuclear-armed Iran," he said. "We saw news reports that the Syrians have moved Scud missiles into southern Lebanon. That is a serious escalatory move. Now Jerusalem and Tel Aviv are within range of Scud missiles."

The "Israeli" DebkaFile report stated last week that the scuds were not transferred to Hizbullah, and that the missiles would not even be useful to Hizbullah, amid media reports that Iran's missiles better the scuds.

The Syrian embassy also fired off a statement on Thursday denying the reports.

"The government of Syria categorically denies the recent spurious allegations emanating from ‘Israel' regarding the supply of Scud missiles to Hizbullah," the statement said. "This disinformation campaign aims at misleading the world's public opinion."