South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham on Sunday accused Iran of involvement in Hamas’s deadly surprise attack on Israel and warned Tehran that any escalation of the war would have consequences.
“We are here today to say to Iran: ‘We are watching you. If this war grows, it will come to your backyard,’” Graham said from Tel Aviv as he joined a delegation of 10 senators on a trip to Israel and Saudi Arabia.
“There will not be two fronts, there will be three,” he continued, without giving further details about the ferocious threat.
“The idea that this happened without Iranian involvement is ridiculous,” Graham added.
Since Hamas’s stealth invasion of Israel on October 7, fears have grown that Hezbollah – the Tehran-backed Lebanese terrorist group – will open a second front in the north.
Israeli officials have threatened to launch a large-scale military attack on Iran if Hezbollah joins the ongoing war.
“Iran’s plan is to attack Israel on all fronts. “If we find out that they intend to attack Israel, we will not only retaliate on those fronts, but we will go to the head of the snake, which is Iran,” Nir Barkat, Israel’s Economy Minister, told the Daily Mail on Friday.
Lindsey Graham has long been a strong supporter of Israel with a penchant for using American military force. AP
Hezbollah, backed by Iran, is equipped with much more sophisticated missiles than Hamas and is anchored in northern Israel, in Lebanon.
Iran, a Shiite-dominated theocracy, has also long supported Hamas, a Sunni group that rules the Gaza Strip and is designated a terrorist organization by the United States.
Last week, Graham, a prominent hardline foreign policy voice in the Republican Party, raised the possibility of US military retaliation against Tehran if Hezbollah launches a war that ravages Israel.
“I just spoke on the phone with the Israelis. “Their goal is to destroy Hamas in the south and try to save as many innocent Palestinians as possible to prevent a Hezbollah escalation in the north,” Graham said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” last Sunday.
Iran has threatened to retaliate against Israel if the war against Hamas continues and Israel mounts a ground invasion of the Gaza Strip. Anadolu via Getty Images An Iranian protester dressed in military uniform burns the American flag and an Israeli flag during an anti-Israel demonstration. NurPhoto via Getty Images
“Here is my message. “If Hezbollah, which is a proxy for Iran, launches a massive attack against Israel, he would consider it a threat to the State of Israel, existential in nature,” he continued. “Iran, if you escalate this war, we will come after you.”
Other Republican senators attempted to downplay the comments.
“I think Senator Graham speaks his mind on these issues,” Senate Minority Leader John Thune (R-SD) told reporters last week about his threat to Iran.
Thune was among nine other senators who accompanied Graham on the trip to the Jewish state.
Other senators in the bipartisan delegation include Sens. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Dan Sullivan (R-Alas.), and Jack Reed (D-RI). , Katie Britt (R-Alab.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Ct.) and Susan Collins (R-Me.)
“We are here today to give Israel what it needs to do the job of destroying the modern version of the Nazis: Hamas,” Graham declared at Sunday’s news conference.
He compared Hamas to ISIS and maintained that destroying the terrorist group is “non-negotiable.”
“I’ve never seen anything like it in my life,” Graham continued. “How does this end? Israel prospers, survives, Hamas is destroyed, the Palestinian people have a better life. “This is how this has to end.”
Blood is seen splattered in a child’s room after a massive attack by Hamas militants in Kibbutz Nir Oz, Israel.AP
Cardin echoed Graham’s conviction to destroy Hamas and also expressed support for trying to revive efforts to normalize relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia once the war ends.
“The immediate issue is to ensure that Hamas can never do this again,” he said.
Last week, President Biden visited Israel and gave a prime-time speech from the Oval Office seeking to build support for a supplemental package of approximately $106 billion, of which $14.3 billion was support for Israel and $61.4 billion million dollars for Ukraine.
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