Republican Presidential nominee John McCain and lead Democratic candidate Barack Obama attacked each other's stands regarding the Iranian danger Monday, and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni made it clear Tuesday that force was still an option for dealing with Iran. 

Speaking before American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) convention in Washington, D.C., McCain said: "The Iranians have spent years working toward a nuclear program. And the idea that they now seek nuclear weapons because we refuse to engage in presidential-level talks is a serious misreading of history. In reality, a series of administrations have tried to talk to Iran, and none tried harder than the Clinton administration…"

'Summit Would Achieve Nothing'

"Even so, we hear talk of a meeting with the Iranian leadership offered up as if it were some sudden inspiration, a bold new idea that somehow nobody has ever thought of before," McCain said, in a reference to Obama's statements on the matter. "Yet it's hard to see what such a summit with President Ahmadinejad would actually gain, except an earful of anti-Semitic rants, and a worldwide audience for a man who denies one Holocaust and talks before frenzied crowds about starting another. Such a spectacle would harm Iranian moderates and dissidents, as the radicals and hardliners strengthen their position and suddenly acquire the appe

"It's hard to see what a summit with Ahmadinejad would actually gain, except an earful of anti-Semitic rants."

arance of respectability."

"Rather than sitting down unconditionally with the Iranian president or supreme leader in the hope that we can talk sense into them," McCain explained, "we must create the real-world pressures that will peacefully but decisively change the path they are on. Essential to this strategy is the UN Security Council, which should impose progressively tougher political and economic sanctions. Should the Security Council continue to delay in this responsibility, the United States must lead like-minded countries in imposing multilateral sanctions outside the UN framework... A severe limit on Iranian imports of gasoline would create immediate pressure on Khamenei and Ahmadinejad to change course, and to cease in the pursuit of nuclear weapons."

McCain noted that he was one of the senators who authored an amendment calling for the designation of the Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization. "Over three quarters of the Senate supported this obvious step, but not Senator Obama," he said. :He opposed this resolution because its support for countering Iranian influence in Iraq was, he said, a 'wrong message not only to the world, but also to the region.' But here, too, he is mistaken. Holding Iran's influence in check, and holding a terrorist organization accountable, sends exactly the right message -- to Iran, to the region and to the world."

McCain Policy is 'Failed and Dangerous'

Sen. Obama was quick to respond to McCain's criticism: "John McCain stubbornly insists on continuing a dangerous and failed foreign policy that has clearly made the United States and Israel less secure," he contended. "Here are the results of the policies that John McCain has supported, and would continue. During the Bush Administration, Iran has dramatically expanded its nuclear program, going from zero centrifuges to more than 3000 centrifuges. During the Bush Administration, Iran has expanded its influence throughout a vitally important region, plying Hamas and Hezbollah with money and arms. During the Bush Administration, Hamas took over

"John McCain continues to run on a platform of doubling down on George Bush's failed policies."

Gaza. Most importantly, the war in Iraq that John McCain supported and promises to continue indefinitely has done more to dramatically strengthen and embolden Iran than anything in a generation."

"Confronted with that reality, John McCain promises four more years of the same policies that have strengthened Iran, making the United States and Israel less safe," Obama continued. "He promises to continue a war in Iraq that has emboldened Iran and strengthened its hand. He promises sanctions that the Bush Administration has been unable to persuade the Security Council to deliver. He promises a divestment campaign, even though he refused to sign on to Barack Obama's bipartisan divestment bill, refused to get his colleagues to lift an anonymous hold on the bill, and willfully ignores the fact that trade and investment between Iran and Iraq continue to expand. He stubbornly refuses to engage in aggressive diplomacy, ruling it out unconditionally as a tool of American power.

"Instead of recognizing reality," the Democratic contender added, "John McCain continues to run on a platform of doubling down on George Bush's failed policies, while carrying on his divisive brand of politics. The United States and Israel cannot afford four more years of an unwillingness to change course."

'The Day is Right Now'

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni spoke at length about the Iranian threat in the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Tuesday. "Iran must understand that the threat of a military move exists and is not off the table," she said. "The clearer that becomes, the need for [a military strike] in practice may become smaller... Weakness can be interpreted as a sort of acceptance of fate," Livni explained. Click here for more of Livni's remarks.