AFP – Republican presidential hopefuls lambasted Iran in their first head-to-head debate Thursday, with the Islamic Republic accused of launching a "nightmare" quest for nuclear weapons.
One of the party frontrunners, Senator John McCain, accused Iran of sending lethal bomb making equipment, jihadists and suicide bombers into Iraq and killing US soldiers.
"Iran is a state sponsor of terrorism. We all know that. Iran continues their efforts to build nuclear weapons," McCain said in the debate among 10 candidates gathered at the Ronald Reagan presidential library.
"My greatest fear is the Iranians acquire a nuclear weapon and give it to a terrorist organization and there is a real threat of them doing that," said McCain, who also called for a more intense US diplomacy to end the showdown.
Former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who leads opinion polls of the Republican race, admitted that the use of force against Tehran would be "very dangerous" but not as dangerous as a nuclear-armed Iran, and took a swipe at President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
"It’s the worst nightmare of the Cold War isn’t it? The nuclear weapons in the hands of an irrational person, an irrational force," said Giuliani.
"Ahmadinejad is clearly irrational."
Colorado congressman Tom Tancredo, a long-shot candidate, warned that Iran was led "by a gentleman who believes that he is going to be responsible for the coming of the 12th imam and a guy with a bomb.
"That should put us in the position of saying that anything we can do to stop that is imperative."
Ahmadinejad on Wednesday said Iran would not yield "an inch" on its nuclear programme despite the reopening of talks with the European Union to find a solution to the standoff.
The United States accuses Iran of seeking nuclear weapons but Tehran insists that it wants only to produce energy for a growing population.
