The world should not take too much solace from this week's intelligence estimate suggesting Iran has not been pursuing a nuclear weapon program for several years, Arizona Sen. John McCain told a group of Monitor reporters and editors this week.

Though the news is good, Iran's government is still dangerous and adversarial. And though it appears that human intelligence has improved, he said, the report's reversal of recent conclusions highlights problems in U.S intelligence more broadly.

"Iran still supports Hamas and Hezbollah, terrorist organizations bent on the destruction of Israel," he said, and it still supplies Iraqi insurgents with some of the most deadly explosive devices used against U.S. troops.

McCain said that he hopes the information could form the basis for new talks between the U.S. and Iran, but he warned that the U.S. needs to be careful not to give Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a public relations opportunity without being certain that he would grant certain concessions.

In a broad discussion that touched on health care policy, immigration and the war in Iraq, McCain, who is seeking the Republican nomination for president, focused on detailed appraisals of the country's international threats, showcasing his long history in military and foreign policy matters. On the stump, McCain has emphasized those credentials, arguing that he's ready to speak to the world's leaders without additional training or an over-reliance on advisers.

This week's visit was McCain's second with the Monitor's editorial board in recent months, and comes at a time when he is consolidating his campaign effort in New Hampshire and seeing his poll numbers rise here.

His last visit came in a darker hour for his campaign, after several top aides left and financial reports showed the campaign nearly broke.

"We've come back, Lazarus like, as you know," McCain joked about his change in fortunes.

Iran, he said, can't be seen in isolation. U.S. policy there will ripple throughout the region, just as U.S. successes and failures in Iraq have influenced the country's relationships with Iraq's neighbors.

"I think all of these countries are connected. I think events are connected," he said, citing political developments in Syria, Lebanon, Pakistan and the Palestinian territories. "People sensed American power, American success, etc., and their behavior was affected by it. Then we started failing."

McCain reiterated his strong support for the current Iraq war strategy and its leader, Gen. David Petraeus. The so-called troop surge has led to tangible improvements in security, McCain said, though he acknowledged that he's frustrated with the pace of political reform in the country.

Military leaders are doing the best they can picking up the pieces after years of poor leadership, McCain said. He was an early and vocal critic of former secretary of defense Donald Rumsfeld, and often says that he's the only Republican candidate for president who clashed publicly with the president on the war strategy. Now he likens the early years of the war to "watching a train wreck," and President Bush's case for the war as a "colossal intelligence failure."

But he is unflinching in his belief that a stable Iraq is vital to U.S. interests going forward.

"Compared to Saddam Hussein, compared to having it be a base of al-Qaida operations, which Gen. Petraeus said it would be if we left, it's a success," he said.

He was less optimistic about current operations in Afghanistan, where he said he was disappointed that several U.S. allies there were planning to remove their troops. The current instability in Pakistan, he said, could also make Afghanistan a more dangerous place.

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