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'Disturbed' McCain not funny
13/07/2008 14:02 - (SA)
Tehran - Iran has condemned US Republican presidential candidate John McCain for joking about killing Iranians with cigarettes and said it showed his "warmongering" foreign policy attitude, media said on Sunday.
McCain, who once sang in jest about bombing Iran, on Tuesday
reacted to a report of rising US cigarette exports to the
Islamic Republic by saying it may be "a way of killing 'em".
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mohammad Ali Hosseini
said: "McCain's crude remark on the indiscriminate killing of
the Iranian nation not only testifies to his disturbed state of
mind, but also to his warmongering approach to foreign policy."
In a statement quoted by the website of Iran's state Press
TV satellite station, Hosseini added:
"We condemn such jokes and believe them to be inappropriate
for a US presidential candidate. It is most evident that jokes
about genocide will not be tolerated by Iranians or Americans."
McCain, known for acerbic comments and for sometimes firing
verbally from the hip, was responding to a report that US
exports to Iran rose tenfold during President George W Bush's
term in office despite hostility between the two countries.
A rise in cigarette sales was a big part of that, according
to an Associated Press analysis.
"Maybe that's a way of killing 'em," McCain said to
reporters during a campaign stop in Pittsburgh. "I meant that as
a joke, as a person who hasn't had a cigarette in 28 years, 29
years," he added, laughing.
His comments coincided with rising tension between Iran and
its arch-foes, the United States and Israel, over the Islamic
Republic's disputed nuclear programme.
US leaders have not ruled out military options if
diplomacy fails to assuage fears about Iran's nuclear work,
which they suspect is aimed at making bombs but which Tehran
says is only to produce electricity.
- Reuters
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US Elections Special Report
