Senior Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, a close ally of Donald Trump, gave an interview to the newspaper HaDerech and laid out his view of Trump’s approach to Israel and the Iran deal. Graham said he does not believe Trump has changed, adding, “Trump will not abandon Israel’s security.” He argued that the main issue is reopening the Strait of Hormuz, which he said has clear economic significance, and recalled Trump saying earlier in the week that if negotiations on the agreement fail, “we will take over the Strait of Hormuz.” Graham said he believes the United States would use military force if needed and would charge countries using the route to help finance the operation. If Iran challenges Washington, he said, “we will wipe out what is left of their military and hit them hard.”
On diplomacy with Tehran, Graham said he supports a negotiated solution only if it can truly guarantee peace and remove the nuclear threat. He called the original memorandum of understanding problematic, but said he does not want to rule out diplomacy entirely at this stage.
Graham was uncompromising on uranium enrichment. In any agreement he supports, there should be no enrichment of any kind, not for civilian use or any other purpose. He said allowing enrichment would mean returning to Barack Obama’s original nuclear deal, which he described as terrible. Any enriched uranium in Iran, he said, must leave the country or be destroyed there, and he rejected any plan to dilute it and leave it in Iran.
He also warned against any deal that would limit Israel’s freedom of action against Hezbollah. Graham said Israel should not withdraw from Lebanon and argued that a real Israel-Lebanon agreement is almost impossible while Iran is negotiating on behalf of Hezbollah with the United States. He said the Lebanese army is too weak to destroy or disarm Hezbollah on its own, and insisted that the path to dismantling the group begins with boxing in Iran so it can no longer support what he called a “murderous terrorist organization.” He added that Iran should not be allowed to protect its “proxy” in Lebanon, and criticized the idea that U.S.-Iran talks in Switzerland would automatically bind both Israel and Lebanon.
