In another blogger call this afternoon, McCain continued to hammer at Obama's willingness to meet personally and without precondition with the leaders of the world's most odious regimes. Echoing a statement he'd made earlier today, McCain asked:
If Senator Obama wants to sit down across the table with the leader of a nation that calls Israel a stinking corpse--what is it that he wants to talk about with him?
Obama has repeatedly insisted that his approach to Hamas and other terrorist organizations is no different than McCain's or Clinton's, but McCain drew a clear distinction when he declared that Iran is "a state sponsor of terrorism, so therefore a terrorist nation themselves." He went on, "We all know they're developing nuclear weapons and pose an enormous threat to the state of Israel."
McCain said he, too, would be willing to meet with the Iranians, but only on the condition that they recognize Israel's right to exist, renounce terrorism, abandon their nuclear weapons program, and stop training and supplying Iraqi militants:
Meaningful negotiations could take place if they stop sponsoring terrorist organizations…those are the preconditions for sitting down with the Iranians.
McCain said they could signal their willingness to do these things through their ambassador to Baghdad, but that Ambassador Crocker had informed him "they haven't shown the slightest inclination to do those things. They are seeking age-old Persian ambitions."
