McCain cites Iran's nuclear threat while in Israel (Roundup)

Mar 18, 2008, 21:29 GMT

Jerusalem - US Republican presidential hopeful John McCain Tuesday expressed concern about Iran's possible nuclear armament during his two-day visit to Israel.

McCain told Israeli President Shimon Peres that his concern had grown during his current week-long trip through the Middle East which has taken him to Iraq and Jordan, according to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz online.

'Iran is funding, training, and aiding extremist groups,' McCain was quoted as saying.

McCain, who is travelling with fellow Senators Joseph Liberman and Lindsay Graham, said his trip was a fact-finding mission, not a campaign trip.

Peres noted that Iran was a threat not only to Israel but also to Arab nations in the region, adding that 'a combination of terror, nuclear capability and irresponsible leadership creates a threat to the entire world.'

Earlier in the day, the senators visited the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Centre in Jerusalem, toured the centre's Holocaust History Museum, visited the children's memorial, and laid a wreath in the Hall of Remembrance.

'I want to thank the people who manage this incredible place for all their hard work and dedication, to make a reality of remembrance of man's inhumanity of man, and a remembrance of the courage and bravery and sustainability of the human spirit,' he said.

'I am deeply moved. Never Again,' McCain wrote in the centre's guest book.

McCain, the Republican Party's presidential nominee-in-waiting, arrived in Israel from Jordan. He is also to make stops in London and Paris.