Senator McCain calls for divestment in Iran

McCain told the gathering at the conference today that the US and Israel are the most natural of allies and their alliance is forever. He said threats to Israel and large and growing and the foremost come from Iran. He talked about how he would deal with Iran differently from Barack Obama: we must create pressure that will peacefully but strongly force Iran to change its course of action. McCain said he supports a broad range of sanctions on Iran, and in the same way that such a campaign helped bring an end to apartheid in South Africa, McCain says it’s time for a similar approach towards Iran. This analyst agrees with McCain that hardliners in Iran are not very popular right now, but he thinks more sanctions could backfire and the example of South Africa is misleading. He says people in Iran think sanctions help the hardliners. He says sanctions might be useful but they’re a long term solution to a short or medium term problem. McCain pointed out that negotiating is not a novel idea, and others have tried in the past and failed. This analyst acknowledges negotiations are arduous, but alternatives are worse because they could lead to a collision.