Washington (TDI): Senator Lindsey Graham issued an open threat to Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states, demanding they enter the US-Israeli war against Iran and warning of unspecified “consequences” should they refuse.
During a Fox News appearance on Monday, Graham directly called on the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia to launch strikes on Iran, saying: “I want them to get into the fight. We sell them weapons. Iran is striking their country; they have good capability.”
When asked about Saudi Arabia’s continued refusal to join the military campaign, Graham said, “there would be consequences for those who stood on the sidelines.”
The statement came days after Graham made equally notable remarks predicting vast economic gains for the United States from the conflict.
“When this regime goes down, we are going to have a new Middle East, and we are going to make a ton of money,” Graham told Fox News anchor Maria Bartiromo, a comment that prompted immediate criticism.
According to a report by The Wall Street Journal, in the weeks before the United States and Israel launched their joint attack on Iran on February 28, Graham made multiple trips to Israel, meeting with members of Mossad, Israel’s intelligence agency.
Read More: Netanyahu to Raise Iran Missiles in Talks with Trump
“They’ll tell me things our own government won’t tell me,” Graham said of those meetings. The Journal reported that during these visits, Graham was actively coaching Israeli Prime Minister on how to lobby Trump for military action on Iran.
Netanyahu subsequently presented Trump with intelligence that Graham says “persuaded” him to authorize the joint offensive. Critics argue Graham was functioning less as an American senator and more as a liaison for Israeli military objectives.
Graham also predicted a dramatic escalation of the conflict in the coming fortnight. The US was going to “blow the hell out of these people,” he said, and vowed that “nobody will threaten (the US) in the Strait of Hormuz again” a critical chokepoint through which roughly a fifth of the world’s oil passes.
Graham’s current obsession of war with Iran is not new, it is the culmination of decades of his advocacy for military action against Iran. The South Carolina senator has backed nearly every major US military intervention in the Middle East.
On Iran specifically, Graham has called for military action repeatedly over the years, consistently arguing that Tehran’s nuclear program poses an existential threat: a position contradicted by the International Atomic Energy Agency, which said there is currently no evidence of an ongoing program to make a nuclear weapon.
