US Senator Lindsey Graham: More pressure on Iran necessary to secure release of hostages

U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) has been a frequent and vocal supporter of Israel and critic of Iran during his years in office. However, in a recent interview with The Jerusalem Post, Graham asserted that targeting Iran directly is the only way to change the behavior of its proxy groups in the Middle East, including Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen

On Wednesday, Graham introduced a resolution calling on the U.S. government to consider any Hezbollah attack on Israel as an attack from Iran, and an Authorization for Use of Military Force to permit the U.S. Armed Forces to act against Iran if it develops nuclear weapons.

In an interview on Friday, Graham told the Post: “The ayatollah will change his behavior only when the cost to the regime is too high.” 

The senator said he intends to bring the two resolutions up for a vote when the Senate reconvenes in September. He also said he hopes “it will become the policy of the United States to stop this charade that these proxies are anything other than Iran.” 

Graham directly linked pressure on Iran to the hostage negotiations between Israel and Hamas. 

“I’ve told the hostage families early on – the key to all this is for Iran to feel the pressure,” Graham told the Post. “I said it then, and I’m saying it now.” 

He also said the lack of pressure on Iran has led to stalls in the negotiations. 

“Therein lies the problem,” he said. “I think the more Iran feels the pressure of Hamas’s terrorist acts, Hezbollah’s terrorist acts, and the Houthis terrorist acts, the more likely you’d get less terrorism and [will get the] release of the hostages.” 

While Graham said he supports a hostage deal now, he wants to see a deal that sets “conditions for a better future for Israel and the Palestinians.” 

“That’s the goal,” the senator stated. “In the meantime, these escalations have to be dealt with, and I would change the game of how we deal with it.”

Graham, who has had a long career in U.S. Congress, first as a representative for South Carolina and then as a senator, has shown consistent support for Israel. The senator visited Israel after the Oct. 7 terror attack in southern Israel. Even at that time, he warned that Iran was the source of the attacks against Israel. 

“If there is an effort to unleash Hezbollah on the Jewish state to destroy it, my attention will be to Tehran,” Graham said at the time. 

Graham previously called for the IDF to conduct a pre-emptive strike on Iran’s nuclear program and urged the Biden administration to enable Israel to do so. 

On Friday, Sen. Graham sent a letter to Biden accusing his administration of establishing a “partial arms embargo against Israel” and calling on him to change course. 

The letter stated that Biden’s actions “violate the will of Congress as expressed in the recent supplemental that funded emergency military support to Israel.” 

In an interview with Fox’s Sean Hannity on Thursday, Graham said Israel should strike Iran’s oil refineries. 

“There is no Hamas or Hezbollah without Iran supplying the money and the weapons,” Graham told Hannity. “So if there is an attack by Hezbollah against Israel, or a direct attack by Iran against Israel, I am calling tonight for Israel to destroy the oil refineries that fuel this terrorist beast.” 

According to Graham, if Israel destroys Iran’s oil production, it would stop Iranian funding of its proxies. 

“Until you hit the Ayatollah where it hurts, he could care less about how many Hezbollah people you kill or Hamas people you kill,” Graham stated. “But he does care about his economy and his ability to make money to wage war.”