At AIPAC, McCain attacks Obama for his ‘feckless foreign policy’

John McCain, the hawkish Republican senator from the US state of Arizona, has sharply criticized US President Barack Obama during his speech at the annual conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).

During his speech on Monday, McCain said Russia’s military deployment to Ukraine’s Crimea region is “the ultimate result of a feckless foreign policy where nobody believes in America’s strength anymore.”

He also referred to Obama’s leaked remarks during a conversation with former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in South Korea in 2012 when he was caught on an open microphone, saying he would show more flexibility to Russia after his reelection.

“Tell Vladimir [Putin] that I’ll be more flexible when I’m reelected,” McCain disdainfully quoted Obama during his AIPAC speech.

The Arizona Republican also blasted Obama for not invading Syria last summer following reports of a chemical weapons attack that Washington blamed on the Syrian government.

“When a president of the United States says that president is to take military action and does not, that sends a message all around the globe,” McCain said.

He also said that new sanctions legislation against Iran should be passed by US senators.

“The senate should pass new bipartisan sanctions legislation that will take effect if the current negotiations don’t succeed.”

Obama has repeatedly said that he would veto the new sanctions against Iran, introduced by Senators Bob Menendez (D-New Jersey) and Mark Kirk (R-Illinois) in mid December, if passed by Congress.