Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Sunday issued a warning to Iran, saying that if the Lebanese group Hezbollah acts against Israel, the United States could take action.
“I will introduce a resolution in the United States Senate to allow military action by the United States in conjunction with Israel to knock Iran out of the oil business,” the GOP senator said. “Iran, if you escalate this war, we’re coming for you.”
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards founded Hezbollah in 1982, in the middle of Lebanon’s civil war. It was part of Iran’s effort to export its 1979 Islamic Revolution around the region and fight Israeli forces after their 1982 invasion of Lebanon.
Sharing Tehran’s Shi‘ite Islamist ideology, Hezbollah recruited Lebanese Shi’ite Muslims. The group has risen from a shadowy faction to a heavily armed force with major sway over the Lebanese state. Like Hamas, the United States and many Western governments deem Hezbollah a terrorist organization.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken and other U.S. officials have said there is no “direct evidence” that Tehran was involved in the Hamas assault, although some reports have indicated otherwise. Iranian officials have publicly praised Hamas’s attack, although they initially denied involvement.
“Iran has had a long relationship with Hamas. Hamas wouldn’t be Hamas without the support over many, many years from Iran,” he said last week. “And so, we know that. We see that. When it comes to this specific attack, in this moment, we don’t have direct evidence that Iran was involved in the attack, either in planning it or carrying it out.”
Mr. Graham, a longtime foreign policy hawk, said he doesn’t believe the notion that Iran wasn’t involved in the Hamas attack on Israel’s southern border. “The idea that Iran read about this operation in the paper or on television is laughable,” he said Sunday.
When asked if he wanted a war with Iran, Mr. Graham said: “I am poised to use military force to destroy the source of funding for Hamas and Hezbollah.”
“They’re the source of the problem. They’re the great evil. So, if Hezbollah escalates against Israel, it will be because Iran told them to. Then Iran, you’re in the crosshairs of the United States and Israel,” he continued.
Gazans have been under siege since Israel launched its most intense bombardment and blockade ever following a devastating cross-border assault by Islamist Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have been displaced within Gaza, with some taking cars and suitcases south towards the Rafah crossing but others heading back north after failing to find refuge.
It comes as diplomatic efforts to arrange a ceasefire to let aid reach the besieged Gaza Strip failed on Monday, and Israel ordered the evacuation of villages in a strip of territory near its border with Lebanon, raising fears the war could spread to a new front. It has put Gaza, home to 2.3 million Palestinians, under a total blockade and pounded it with air strikes, and is widely expected to launch a ground assault.
Gaza authorities say at least 2,750 people have been killed there, including mainly civilians.
According to the United Nations, a million Gazans have already been driven from their homes. Power is out, sanitary water is scarce, and the last fuel for emergency generators could be used up within a day.
In the biggest sign yet that the war could spread to a new front, Israel ordered the evacuation on Monday of 28 villages in a 2 km (1.2 mile)-deep zone near its Lebanese border. Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement said it had targeted five Israeli positions.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Parliament that Israel should prepare for a lengthy conflict and warned Tehran.
“Now we are focused on one target: to unite forces and charge forward to victory. This requires determination because victory will take time,” the prime minister said. “And I have a message for Iran and Hezbollah, don’t test us in the north. Don’t make the same mistake you once made. Because today the price you will pay will be much heavier.”
