Lindsey Graham wants military action against Iran’s nuclear program

By Gregory Svirnovskiy

With a six-week cease-fire now in effect in Gaza, longtime ally Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) is urging President-elect Donald Trump to go after Iran with force.

The target: Tehran’s nuclear program. The country is now a “de facto nuclear threshold state,” and Graham doesn’t believe diplomacy will stop Iran from eventually crossing the threshold.

“There’s a one in trillion chance you’ll degrade the Iranian nuclear program through diplomacy,” Graham told Margaret Brennan on Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “There’s a 90% chance you’ll degrade it through military action by Israel, supported by the United States. So the next topic I will be engaging in with President Trump is to take this moment in time to decimate the Iran nuclear program because they’re so exposed.”

Israel’s incursions into Gaza to fight Hamas and into Lebanon to cut down Hezbollah, as well as its October 2024 strike on Iranian military targets, mean Iran is noticeably weaker than it once was.

After pulling the U.S. out of a nuclear deal with Iran in 2018, Trump in his first term employed a maximum pressure strategy of sanctions designed to throttle the country’s ability to develop the weapons. That campaign is now on its way back. But experts worry it might be too late to prevent Iran from producing a nuclear weapon.

Graham has long encouraged punitive action against Iran, especially as Israel’s war against Hamas, a key Iranian proxy, raged in Gaza.

“This is a religious Nazi regime,” Graham told Brennan. “They want to destroy the Jewish state. They want to purify Islam and drive us out of the Mideast. It would be like negotiating with Hitler. I am hoping there will be an effort by Israel to decimate the Iran nuclear program supported by the United States, and, if we don’t do that, it will be a historical mistake.”

Graham on Sunday joined a chorus of Republicans in the national security space praising Trump for his role in helping to create a breakthrough in cease-fire negotiations between Israel and Hamas.

“Let me just say this: These people would not be coming out if Donald Trump had not demanded they be out,” Graham said.