In a Fox News interview, the South Carolina Republican argued that Tehran was behind both the attacks on US bases in Iraq and Syria and the harassment of Israeli-linked cargo ships in the Red Sea.
"I have been saying for six months now: Hit Iran," Graham said. "They have oil fields out in the open, they have the Revolutionary Guard headquarters you can see from space. Blow it off the map."
According to Graham, the Houthis in Yemen are "completely backed" by Tehran. "Without Iran, there are no Houthis," he said.
The self-proclaimed government of Yemen has publicly supported the Palestinians in the Israel-Gaza conflict and has taken aim at Israeli-owned or bound merchant ships since late October. In response, several major shipping companies have altered their routes to avoid the region, leading to increased costs.
Various groups calling themselves the "Islamic Resistance" have also launched drones and rockets at US troops in Iraq and Syria. Washington refuses to withdraw its forces from the region, even though they have long outlived Baghdad's welcome and never had the blessing of Damascus.
Despite the US military's recent airstrikes on three Iraqi targets, Senator Graham has criticized Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin for not taking more aggressive action, suggesting that the response was insufficient and failed to support troops on the ground.
"I asked him a couple of months ago: Is there a red line? Would you tell our enemies publicly that if you kill an American, we are coming after you?" the senator told Fox News. "If you really want to protect American soldiers, make it real to the ayatollah, you attack a soldier through a proxy, we're coming after you."
Graham has a long history of promoting the use of force abroad, often in tandem with former Arizona Senator John McCain, who infamously sang "Bomb Iran" during his 2007 presidential campaign. He carried the torch after McCain died in 2018. Graham is a retired colonel in the US Air Force but spent his entire military career in the Judge Advocate General corps as a lawyer and then a judge.
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