In a Tuesday night appearance on CNN, Senator Lindsey Graham placed the ultimate blame for the horrific Hamas terror attacks on Israel on the shoulders of Iran and said it was time to make the regime pay for its actions.
In an interview with Abby Phillip, the Republican senator rejected the contention of Joe Biden’s national security team that Iran was broadly involved in the Hamas attacks, but there is no evidence that they helped plan them.
“This was a coordinated land-sea and air attack that was months in the making,” Graham said. “There is no way in the world this happened without Iran knowing. If you know the relationship between Iran and Hamas, it is impossible to believe.’
Philip asked the longtime South Carolina politician if he thinks the US should target Iranian oil infrastructure if the conflict escalates and thereby become directly involved in the war.
“We are already directly involved, 14 Americans are dead tonight. To their families, I’m sorry,” he responded, referring to the Americans who are confirmed victims of the barbaric Hamas attacks.
“Here’s what I’m saying, I want to be very clear,” he said. “If they (Hamas) start killing those (American and Israeli) hostages, and if there is an attack by Hezbollah in the north, that creates two fronts for Israel. What I would do is, I would bomb Iran’s oil infrastructure.’
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said it was high time the US acted in response to Iran’s longstanding funding of terrorism. He proposed a joint operation with Israel that would target Iran’s oil infrastructure
Rockets are fired by Palestinian militants into Israel in Gaza City on October 7, 2023
“It is time,” he added, that Iran “pay a price for financing” terror. ‘Now is the time to dismantle the financial system of terrorism.’
He went on to add that, if it were up to him, the US would conduct a joint military operation with Israel to target Iranian oil infrastructure.
‘And if we don’t, what do you expect to happen in the future? Do we expect Israel to forgive and forget? Biden didn’t say one word about Iran today. And I want to support the president,’ he said.
In a bombshell report from The Wall Street Journal, it was revealed that the Palestinian terror attack that struck Israel early Saturday was planned and carried out with the help of officers from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Senior members of the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah claimed that Hamas’ surprise attack on Israel that killed at least 1,200 people was given the green light by Iranian security officials.
In addition to the weekend attacks in cities and towns in southern Israel, Israeli forces in the north also exchanged rockets and artillery fire with Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah militia.
Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus, spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces (lDF), said: ‘Without Iran’s funding, weapons, training, guidance and political incitement, Hamas would not have the ability or the capacity.’
He added: ‘It was a watershed moment, unprecedented in scale, severity, brutality and the sheer glee with which terrorists massacre Israeli citizens.
An IDF soldier reacts and covers his face before removing the body of a civilian killed days earlier in an attack by Hamas militants on October 10, 2023 in Kfar Aza, Israel
Palestinians inspect the damage after an Israeli airstrike on Gaza City as the Israeli response to the aggressors intensifies
A man runs on a road as fire burns after rockets were launched from the Gaza Strip, in Ashkelon, Israel
Israeli soldiers carry the body of a person killed by Hamas militants in Kibbutz Kfar Azza on Tuesday, October 10, 2023
Speaking publicly on Tuesday about the devastating Hamas attacks that have launched Israel back into war with its hostile neighbor, President Joe Biden said: ‘Let me say again, any country, any organization that thinks to take advantage of the situation, I have one word: don’t.’
He called the Oct. 7 atrocity “unadulterated evil” and said his administration was reviewing intelligence to see if Iran or its proxies aided the attempt. The White House said it could not confirm at this time that Iran assisted in the attack.
Biden also did not mention his recent decision to unfreeze $6 billion in Iranian assets as part of a deal that freed five Americans.
White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said the administration has no regrets about the prisoner swap deal with Iran that involved the unfreezing of $6 billion in assets belonging to the terrorist regime.
“The United States does not regret bringing home American citizens who were unjustly detained abroad,” he said. “The president has no higher priority than getting Americans home.
‘Right now. We have Americans being held hostage by Hamas in Gaza. This is a high priority.’
Hamas continued to fire rockets into Israel from Gaza on Tuesday, following a coordinated attack on Saturday that killed more than 900 Israelis and raised immediate suspicions of outside support.
Israel is preparing a possible ground invasion in response to the attacks.
Biden, meanwhile, is facing pressure from Republican senators to reinstate a freeze on the $6 billion.
“Iran is complicit in this attack in a broad sense,” National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said at the White House
The White House says there is ‘complicity’ due to Iran’s support for Hamas, but says there are facts that confirm the Saturday operation. Here, flames and smoke rise as Israel begins its counter-attack airstrikes on Gaza
“To stand by and allow Iran access to these funds while Hamas infiltrates Israel and murders, rapes and maims countless Israelis is unconscionable,” 20 Republican senators wrote to Biden on Monday.
“Your administration claims that these funds are only available for humanitarian use, but money is convertible, and there is a significant risk that it could be used for further efforts by Iran or Hamas against Israel.”
By allowing the funds to flow into Iran’s economy, “allows the Iranian regime to reallocate even more funds to support terrorism,” they added, saying that oversight of the funds “is not enough.”