Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah threaten Middle East, US senator McCain says

Mar 19, 2008, 9:25 GMT

Jerusalem - US Republican presidential hopeful John McCain slammed Iran, Hamas and the Lebanese Hezbollah movement in an interview published Wednesday, saying that they threatened the Middle East and were a danger to US national interests.

'I think Iran is a threat to the region,' the Arizona senator told the Jerusalem Post daily, adding that while Tehran was 'obviously pursuing nuclear weapons,' it was also arming and training extremists to send into Iraq, supporting Hezbollah and influencing Syria.

'At the end of the day, we can still not afford to have Iran with nuclear weapons,' McCain said. 'We know they have ambitions that are not just aimed at the State of Israel,' but also included 'destabilization of the entire region upon which the United States' national security interests rest.'

Hamas and Hezbollah represented a similar threat, he maintained, saying that if the two militant groups 'succeed here, they are going to succeed everywhere, not only in the Middle East, but everywhere.'

'They are dedicated to the extinction of everything that the US, Israel and the West believe and stand for,' he said.

McCain said he backed Israel's refusal to negotiate with Hamas.

'Someone is going to have to answer me the question of how you are going to negotiate with an organization that is dedicated to your extinction,' he said, in reference to the Hamas charter which calls for Israel to be replaced by an Islamic state in all of historic Palestine.

McCain, the Republican Party's nominee-in-waiting, arrived in Israel Tuesday evening, accompanied by Senators Joseph Lieberman of Conneticut and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, for a lightning visit during which he will also meet Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Defence Minister Ehud Barak and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni.

He leaves Wednesday night for France and Britian, the next stage of his current week-long tour, which he says is a fact-finding mission rather than a campaign trip.