US Republican presidential candidate John McCain has once again joked about killing Iranians, this time by sending them cigarettes.

“Maybe that’s a way of killing them,” said Senator McCain, who once sang in jest about bombing Iran.

As others around him laughed uncomfortably, his wife Cindy poked him in the back prompting the 71-year-old McCain to quickly say, “I meant that as a joke… as a person who hasn’t had a cigarette in 28 years,” DPA reported.

The Republican nominee-to-be made the remarks in response to a report that US exports to Iran increased more than tenfold during George W. Bush’s presidency despite his hostile policies toward Tehran.

According to a recent Associated Press report, during President Bush’s years in office, $158 million worth of cigarettes was the chief US exports to Iran.

Last year at a campaign meeting in South Carolina when asked if there is a plan to attack Iran, McCain joked about ‘bombing Iran’, signing a variation on the lyrics of a well-known pop song, Barbara Ann.

“You know that old Beach Boys song, Bomb Iran?” he said, singing “Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran” before answering the question.

He later responded to the stark criticism his remarks drew with a simple ‘lighten up’.

MD/HGH