Sen. John McCain says the imminent threat of an overthrow of Yemeni President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi's government shows just how out of touch President Barack Obama was when touting the country as part of America's success in the war on terror.
"When I heard him say it I was stunned,"
McCain said Tuesday on Fox News Channel's "Your World with Neil Cavuto."
"We've watched this train wreck, as we're going to watch it in Afghanistan if we don't change our policy there, as far as withdrawal is concerned."
McCain called it "doubly alarming" that the
Shiite Houthi rebels who took over the presidential palace on Tuesday are sponsored, armed and trained by Iran.
"I'm sure that there are some Iranians amongst them," McCain said. "It was Iranians that were just killed by Israelis on the Israeli border. It's Iranians that are having some success in Iraq. It's Iranian-backed Shias that are destabilizing Bahrain. They are all over the Middle East. And these are the guys that the president wants to make a deal with."
McCain and other Republicans, along with some Democrats, are critical of the White House talks with Iran over its nuclear program. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee plans to take up sanctions Wednesday, though Obama warned it would hurt his negotiations with the country.
The events in Yemen are hurting the U.S. terror effort since the government is a key ally against al-Qaida. But the country is home to one of the terror group's most powerful affiliates, al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), and an overthrow of the government would only strengthen it.
It doesn't help Obama's position that he singled out Yemen and Somalia in a
Sept. 10, 2014, speech touting America's success against terrorism.
Yemen also has been a recipient of terror detainees released from the U.S. military facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
About 30 more Yemenis are slated for release, and McCain told Cavuto he hopes the White House would come to its senses and stop the releases. He also noted that the two men who carried out the Charlie Hebdo killings in Paris had AQAP ties.
"But the president tonight will probably talk a lot about Cuba," he said. "You won't hear a strategy for how to combat and degrade and destroy Isis, which he has articulated is his goal. He has no strategy."
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