McCain says U.S. pullout from Iraq would boost Iran

By Suleiman al-Khalidi

AMMAN (Reuters) - U.S. Republican presidential candidate John McCain said on Tuesday that a U.S. troop build up in Iraq was succeeding and a premature withdrawal would dramatically enhance Iranian influence in the region.

McCain was speaking in Jordan, where he held talks with King Abdullah, after a visit to Iraq where he met Iraqi leaders and U.S military officials as part of a Senate Armed Services Committee fact-finding mission.

"If we pull out of Iraq ... then obviously the Iranian influence is dramatically increased, al Qaeda has greater influence and endangers the region dramatically, and the United States's image and security challenges are dramatically increased," said McCain.

McCain hopes his Middle East tour will remind Americans of his national security credentials and counter demands by Democratic presidential hopefuls Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama for troops to be withdrawn from Iraq as soon as possible.

The Iraq war is a major issue in the U.S. presidential campaign. As it enters it sixth year, the war has cost the U.S. economy $500 billion and seen nearly 4,000 U.S. soldiers and tens of thousands of Iraqis killed.

McCain, a former Navy pilot and Vietnam War veteran, supported going to war but was a vocal critic of how the war was conducted until an extra 30,000 troops were deployed last year as part of a new counter-insurgency strategy.

"We were very encouraged by our visit to Iraq that the surge is succeeding and in the reduction in U.S. casualties but it is complicated by the Iranian involvement in Iraq... (and) Syrians continue to expedite the flow of foreign fighters in Iraq," McCain added.

Attacks across Iraq have fallen by 60 percent since last June, when the troop build-up was completed. There has been a spike in violence since January, with an upsurge in suicide bombings linked to al Qaeda.