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WASHINGTON — Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) pushed President Trump on Thursday to consider a decisive action that would topple the Iranian regime once and for all — amid its deadly crackdown on dissidents.
“There are a lot of headlines out there that are, in my view, not accurate,” Graham told reporters of the recent developments in Iran. “President Trump’s resolve is not the question: Question is, when we do an operation like this, should it be bigger or smaller?”
“I’m in the camp of bigger,” the South Carolina Republican added. “Time will tell. I’m hopeful and optimistic that the regime days are numbered.”
Trump has repeatedly refused to rule out a US military response if the Iranian security forces’ killing of protesters doesn’t cease.
The death toll has reached nearly 3,500 as of Thursday, according to the Norway-based Iran Human Rights group.
Other unofficial reports have cited total fatalities at almost 10 times that number.
Trump said Wednesday that he heard “on good authority” that the slaughter had ended following his threats of a military response.
Iranian authorities then stopped 800 planned executions of protesters, press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters at a briefing Thursday.
n response to Trump’s escalating rhetoric, Iranian authorities halted 800 planned executions of protesters, press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters at a briefing.
“The president and his team have communicated to the Iranian regime that if the killing continues, there will be grave consequences,” she said.
On Jan. 2, Trump warned that the US was “locked and loaded and ready to go” if Tehran “violently kills peaceful protesters,” which it reportedly followed through on. The Treasury Department followed up with crippling economic sanctions on Iran’s oil empire.
Leavitt affirmed the president’s stance remained open to both military and diplomatic avenues during a briefing with reporters on Thursday.
“The truth is, only President Trump knows what he’s going to do, and a very, very small team of advisers are read into his thinking on that,” Leavitt said.
Graham had earlier stressed that it was “beyond disturbing” to read reports circulating that Arab nations “intervened on behalf of Iran to avoid decisive military action by President Trump.”
Tehran closed its airspace for as long as four hours early Thursday and has continued a communications blackout across the country, forcing some savvy citizens to use SpaceX founder Elon Musk’s Starlink to share information about the regime’s horrors.
“The ayatollah’s regime has American blood on its hands,” Graham added in an X post. “They are slaughtering people in the streets.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has urged Trump to hold off on military action for the time being, according to The New York Times. The Wall Street Journal also reported that the president was informed by advisers that a kinetic action wouldn’t ensure the immediate fall of mullahs.
Graham revealed later Thursday that he was traveling to meet Netanyahu in Israel “to build on the historic opportunities created by President Trump’s unprecedented leadership, to stand up to evil, and to support the people who are sacrificing for freedom.”
“The Trump-Netanyahu alliance has thus far been one of the strongest partnerships in the history of the U.S.-Israel relationship, and I am hopeful it will pay dividends in the near future,” he said in a statement.
“We live in a time of great consequence with the Middle East on the verge of previously unimaginable change. Standing together and following through on our commitments only makes us stronger.”
Diplomats from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Oman had apparently for a time persuaded the president to “give Iran a chance to show good intention,” according to a report by Agence France-Presse that cited an anonymous “senior Saudi official.”
That official also shared with AFP the Persian Gulf countries feared “grave blowbacks in the region” as a result of any American military action.
“I believe it’s possible and necessary to follow through on the redline — and, equally, with my association with Saudi Arabia, Oman, and for 15 years I’ve been the co-chair of the Qatar caucus — to me, it would be in all of their interests that there be a regime change in Tehran,” Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) told The Post Thursday.
“When I hear of them asking for temperance, to me, actually, the countries that would most benefit — the countries that did benefit from the elimination by Donald Trump of their [Tehran’s] nuclear capability — are the countries you just mentioned,” Wilson noted, referencing the president’s strikes last June and Gulf nations rumored to be seeking a de-escalation.
Asked later to clarify thoughts on a redline, Wilson affirmed that the regime’s treatment of anti-government protesters was beyond the pale.
“We’re talking about a closed society. It’s so clear too the number of people who’ve been arrested — well over apparently 10,000 — and their lives are at risk every minute,” he continued.
Meanwhile, Wilson noted “there are military units and naval units that are moving in the direction of the Middle East, and to me that’s an indication … there will be every effort to back up regime change by the people of Iran.”
The South Carolina congressman also indicated he supported strikes against Iranian military targets, but stressed there should be “no boots on the ground” by US forces. He also supported the American military seeking to arm dissidents of Tehran.
“I still believe that the president is very clear in his support for the Iranian protesters, and I see no change at all — that he has a great respect and affection for the protesters and wants them to succeed,” added Wilson.
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