WASHINGTON — Presidential hopeful John McCain Monday called on corporations and government institutions worldwide to pull their money out of Iran as a way to pressure the regime into giving up its nuclear ambitions.

In calling for a global divestment campaign against Iran, McCain told the American Israel Public Affairs Committee that "Tehran's continued pursuit of nuclear weapons poses an unacceptable risk, a danger we cannot allow."

McCain quoted comments of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has called Israel "a stinking corpse" that is "on its way to annihilation." He used those comments to mock Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama's calls to meet with the leaders of Iran and other nations that have been critical of the United States.

It's hard to see what an Ahmadinejad meeting would gain, McCain said, "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."

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