McCain: U.S. supports freedom-seekers

WASHINGTON, July 4 (UPI) -- The United States shares the ideals of people around the world who fight for freedom and their "God-given rights," U.S. Sen. John McCain said Saturday.

McCain delivered the Republican Party's weekly Internet address, as well as a Fourth of July speech in which he praised "liberation struggles," such as pro-democracy protesters in Iran.

"We share a kinship of ideals with every man and woman on Earth who struggles for their God-given rights," McCain said. "The world must never doubt where we stand in the liberation struggles of our time."

Without criticizing him by name, McCain denounced what he and other Republicans say was President Barack Obama's belated and too-tepid endorsement of the Iranian backers of presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, whose protests convulsed Tehran for several days last month.

"Today, we stand with the millions of Iranians who brave batons, imprisonment and gunfire to have their voices heard and their votes counted," McCain said. "They do not ask us to arm them or come to their assistance with anything other than public declarations of solidarity, and public denunciations of the tyrants who oppress them. We have a moral obligation to do so."