Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) are preparing a bipartisan resolution recommending U.S. military strikes on Iran if Iranian-linked factions in the Middle East kill U.S. troops in the region or attack Israel in a manner that significantly divides Israel’s attention from its ongoing military operations against Hamas in Gaza.
In an interview with CNN’s “State of the Union” on Nov. 5, the bipartisan senators explained that their resolution is intended to warn Iran that it will be treated as culpable if its partners in the region widen the ongoing Israel–Hamas war or kill U.S. troops in the region. The legislation that they described would be a nonbinding resolution—known as a “Sense of the Senate” resolution—that expresses the Senate’s support for military strikes on Iran but doesn’t force President Joe Biden to order such strikes.
“It basically says, if the war expands, if Hezbollah opens up a second front in the north against Israel in a substantial way to overwhelm Iron Dome, then we should hit the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Mr. Graham said.
Israel and U.S. intelligence officials haven’t identified direct evidence of Iranian support for the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks that set off the current Israel–Hamas war, but the U.S. State Department has assessed that Iran historically has supported a number of U.S.-designated terrorist factions throughout the Middle East. The State Department published a report this year stating that Iran has armed Hezbollah in Lebanon and Syria, and Hamas and other U.S.-designated Palestinian terrorist groups in Gaza and the West Bank, and has equipped Shiite factions that have targeted U.S. forces in Iraq.
Mr. Graham reiterated that assessment on Nov. 5, saying: “There is no Hamas without the Ayatollah’s support. There’s no Hezbollah without the Ayatollah’s support.”
In the weeks since the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks in southern Israel, Israeli military forces have traded fire near Israel’s northern border with Lebanon. U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria have also come under repeated attacks by rockets and explosive-laden drones and have sustained injuries.
“Israel is begging us to deter Iran. They don’t want the war to widen. If any of our troops are killed in Syria and Iraq by Iranian-backed militias, I think that’s an expansion of the war,” Mr. Graham told CNN. “So the resolution puts Iran on notice that all this military force in the region, we'll be coming after you if you expand this war by activating Hezbollah or killing that American through your proxies in Syria and Iraq, and they need to hear that. They need to believe that.”
Mr. Blumenthal said the message of the resolution is “aggressive, but it’s absolutely necessary.”
The Connecticut Democrat asserted that the resolution isn’t only in the interests of the United States and Israel, but is also for those in other nations in the region.
“We visited Saudi Arabia and Egypt, and believe me, they loathe and fear Iran and Hezbollah and Hamas and the other proxies as much as Israel. So they are in favor of deterring a wider war. I think there’s bipartisan common ground here. And there’s consensus in the region that deterrence is critical because Iran here is the toxic, malign influence,” Mr. Blumenthal said.
Saudi Arabia is focused on economic prosperity and normalizing relations with Israel, but Iran wants to disrupt and destabilize the region, he said.
It remains to be seen if the rest of the Senate will pass the resolution. Even if the resolution is in place, it will still be up to President Biden to decide whether the retaliatory conditions agreed to by the Senate are sufficient justification for a military strike on Iran.
The White House didn’t respond to a request for comment on the resolution by press time.
