Senator John McCain. Photo: Screenshot.

JNS.org – At the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) conference on Monday, U.S. Sen. John McCain thanked AIPAC for its stance in favor of American military action in Syria last summer following the Bashar al-Assad regime’s chemical attack that killed 1,429 civilians.

The Obama administration, despite previously setting a “red line” of chemical weapons use in Syria, eventually agreed to a Russian-brokered deal to place Syria’s chemical stockpile under international supervision, rather than proceeding with a military strike.

“You did the right thing [by lobbying for a U.S. strike on Syria], and I commend you for it,” McCain told AIPAC. The senator said Obama’s failure to follow through on military action in Syria “sends a message all the way around the globe.”

Reacting to Russian military intervention in Ukraine, including the deployment of thousands of troops and the seizure of Crimean facilities, McCain declared, “Crimea is a sovereign part of the sovereign nation of Ukraine.” He called turmoil in Ukraine “the ultimate result of a feckless [U.S.] foreign policy in which nobody believes in America’s strength anymore.”

McCain also urged the passage of new bipartisan sanctions legislation in the Senate, earning a round of applause.

“Do you believe that in light of the recent events of the last five years that the Iranian mullahs think [the U.S. is] serious? I don’t think so,” he said, adding that the U.S. needs to “keep the pressure” on Iran.