WASHINGTON (AFP) - Republican White House candidate John McCain Monday called for tough new sanctions on Iran if it fails to halt its nuclear program, including a bid to deprive the US foe of gasoline.
The Arizona senator, in a speech to the powerful US-Israel lobby, also rebuked his potential Democratic opponent Barack Obama for offering to hold presidential-level talks with Tehran as a "serious misreading of history."
"Tehran's continued pursuit of nuclear weapons poses an unacceptable risk, a danger we cannot allow," McCain told the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee's annual policy conference.
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"Rather than sitting down unconditionally with the Iranian president or supreme leader in the hope we can talk some sense into them, we must create the real-world pressures that will peacefully, effectively change the path they are on."
McCain said severe international restrictions on Iran's capacity to import refined gasoline, plus stringent financial sanctions on the Bank of Iran and worldwide visa bans and asset freezes, would help change the minds of Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
"A severe limit on Iranian imports of gasoline would create immediate pressure on Khamenei and Ahmadinejad to change course and to cease in the pursuit of nuclear weapons," McCain said.
McCain also hit out at Obama, as part of his evolving bid to paint him as naive and inexperienced in world affairs, over his offer to hold talks with top Iranian leaders.
"The idea that they now seek nuclear weapons because we refuse to engage in presidential-level talks is a serious misreading of history," McCain said.
"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.
"It's hard to see what such a summit, with President Ahmadinejad would actually gain, except an earful of anti-Semitic rants, and a worldwide audience for a man who denies one Holocaust and talks before frenzied crowds about starting another."
The Obama campaign hit back, even as McCain spoke, accusing him of wanting to continue George W. Bush's policies in the Middle East, which the Democratic says have only resulted in strengthening Iran.
"Instead of recognizing reality, John McCain continues to run on a platform of doubling down on George Bush's failed policies, while carrying on his divisive brand of politics.
"The United States and Israel cannot afford four more years of an unwillingness to change course," said Obama campaign spokesman Hari Sevugan.