McCain calls for divestment campaign against Iran

By Jeff Mason

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The world should launch a divestment campaign against Iran to curb its nuclear ambitions and reduce potential threats to Israel's security, Republican U.S. presidential candidate John McCain said on Monday.

McCain, an Arizona senator who has wrapped up his party's White House nomination, told a pro-Israel lobby group the United States should also impose financial penalties on the Central Bank of Iran, which he accused of funding terrorism.

"We should privatize the sanctions against Iran by launching a worldwide divestment campaign," McCain told a meeting of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), comparing such a move to similar efforts that helped bring an end to apartheid in South Africa.

"As more people, businesses, pension funds and financial institutions across the world divest from companies doing business with Iran, the radical elite who run that country will become even more unpopular than they are already," he said.

McCain, the first of the U.S. presidential candidates to address this week's meeting of the influential Washington-based lobby group, called on the U.N. Security Council to increase political and economic sanctions on Tehran.

"Should the Security Council continue to delay in this responsibility, the United States must lead like-minded countries in imposing multilateral sanctions outside the U.N. framework," he said.

He said countries should restrict Iran's ability to import gasoline and other refined petroleum products, while regional powers and European nations should freeze Iranian assets and deny visas.

McCain and Democratic rivals Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are all courting Jewish voters and are quick to articulate staunch support for Israel.