IranPress- The US senator, John McCain , a Washington hawk who was well-known for his pro-Israel and anti-Iran stances, has died at 81, after a long battle with an aggressive form of brain cancer, known as glioblastoma. Senator McCain was also well known for his support and advocacy of the anti -Iran terror group the MKO (Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization), as well as the Daesh terror group when they were killing innocent people in both Iraq and Syria.
McCain always described Iran's peaceful civilian nuclear industry as totally unacceptable. He even went out to criticize Russia and China's for their efforts to prevent imposition of sanctions on Islamic Republic of Iran.
McCain often cited Iran's stance towards the Zionist Regime as justification for his aggressive policy towards Iran, saying, "Iran is dedicated to the destruction of Israel. That alone should concern us but now they are trying for nuclear capabilities. I totally support the president when he says we will not allow Iran to destroy Israel".
McCain's animosity against Iran was not just limited to the political arena but he also tried to persuade FIFA to ban Iran from the 2006 World Cup, referring to former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's comments on the Holocaust as the reason for his proposed ban.
In June 2008, a group of congressional Democrats criticized McCain for voting against 2005 legislation that would have toughened sanctions against Iran .
As an advocate of the MKO (Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization) McCain appeared in their gatherings, particularly at an MKO gathering in February 2015.
On April 14,2017 ,McCain, who was on an official visit to Balkan states, met the head of the terrorist Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO), Maryam Rajavi and some other members of the notorious MKO group in Tirana on Friday.
McCain, met the head of the terrorist Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO), Maryam Rajavi on April 14,2017 ,during an official visit to Balkan states.
He congratulated the terrorist group’s “successful transfer” from Iraq and praised its members for what he described as “sacrifice.”
Hawkish US Republican Senator of Arizona, infamously was also known for backing US-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as supporting foreign-backed terror groups in Syria.
Upon his death
McCain’s office announced in a Saturday statement that "Senator John Sidney McCain III died at 4:28 p.m. on August 25, 2018." The former US presidential candidate, Vietnam war veteran and prisoner of war had declared back in July 2017, that he had been diagnosed with a glioblastoma, an aggressive type of brain tumor.
The development came after McCain’s family announced earlier in the week that he was discontinuing treatment.
"With the Senator when he passed were his wife Cindy and their family. At his death, he had served the United States of America faithfully for sixty years," McCain's office said in the statement.
In his 36 years in Congress, McCain became one of the country's most influential politicians. Last year, in his last act of defiance against his party and US President Donald Trump, McCain returned to the Capitol less than a week after his cancer was diagnosed to cast his vote on the Republican effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act — the biggest legislative achievement of President Barack Obama, the man who defeated him in the 2008 election.
But in recent months, the man who had been a mainstay on Capitol Hill for more than three decades was noticeably absent.
McCain was first elected to office in 1982, when he won a seat in the US House of Representatives from Arizona. Four years later he was elected to the Senate, and he was re-elected five times.
Back in the Senate, McCain heard the call of war again, as American foreign policy was transformed after the September 11, 2001, terror attacks, and he became a forceful proponent of the US use of force overseas.
He backed US interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq. Even when Americans grew tired of war, McCain warned that more troops were needed, demanding a surge in forces that Bush later adopted.
But, influenced by his experience of torture in Vietnam, the Arizona senator was a forceful critic of the so-called enhanced interrogation techniques – or torture -- used by the CIA on terror suspects, believing they were contrary to American values and damaged the US image abroad.
Even as McCain is mourned, attention will also soon turn to the process for replacing him in the Senate— where he spent so much of his career.
Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, a Republican, is legally required to fill vacancies in Arizona’s US Senate delegation and will therefore appoint McCain’s replacement. Whoever Ducey chooses will stay in office until 2020.
McCain was born on Aug. 29, 1936, at an American naval installation in the Panama Canal Zone - U.S. territory at the time - when his father was stationed there.
He had been battling glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer, discovered by his doctors in July 2017, and had not been at the U.S. Capitol in 2018. He also had surgery for an intestinal infection in April of this year.
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