Even Senator Lindsey Graham, known for his hardline stance against Iran, expressed reservations about Israel’s recent bombing of fuel depots in Tehran over the weekend.
Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, cautiously critiqued Israel for its Saturday attacks on 30 storage facilities and other energy sites in Iran. He advised the close U.S. ally to exercise greater care in choosing its targets.
“Israel has demonstrated remarkable prowess in undermining Iran’s oppressive regime, and America is greatly thankful,” Graham diplomatically stated on X.
“However, the day will come when Iranians will determine their own destiny, free from the tyrannical rule of the ayatollahs. In this context, I urge you to be mindful of your target selections.”
The Israeli assault resulted in massive fires and towering clouds of black smoke, which subsequently led to harmful, acidic rainfall in the Tehran area.
While Israel had given the Trump administration advance notice of the strikes, which were intended to degrade Tehran’s infrastructure to fund its military activities, Washington was caught off guard by the scale of the attack, Axios reported.
Top officials cited in the report, which Graham shared while delivering his gentle pushback against Israel, fretted that the strikes could motivate Iranians to rally around the regime.
“Our goal is to liberate the Iranian people in a fashion that does not cripple their chance to start a new and better life when this regime collapses,” Graham stressed. “The oil economy of Iran will be essential to that endeavor.”
Graham has been one of the foremost advocates of Operation Epic Fury and has recently pushed Trump to bomb Hezbollah in Lebanon and liberate Cuba.
“You just wait to see what comes in the next two weeks,” Graham told Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures,” regarding Operation Epic Fury in Iran. “We’re going to blow the hell out of these people.”
Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) quipped to reporters last week that Graham “hasn’t seen a fist fight he hasn’t wanted to turn into a bombing raid!”
Even Trump himself has poked at Graham’s hawkishness, chiding in 2019 that the South Carolinian “would like to stay in the Middle East for the next thousand years.”
Graham’s rhetoric drew a Sunday rebuke from the daughter of his late Senate ally, John McCain.
“I’ve known Lindsey Graham since I was a child,” Meghan McCain wrote pleadingly on X. “I am imploring anyone who will listen in the Trump administration to stop sending this man out as a surrogate.”
“He is scaring people and doing damage to whatever message you’re trying to sell to the American public about the Iran war.”
