Graham and Blumenthal Announce Resolution Supporting Military Action Against Iran Transcript

Today we have a bipartisan group of senators, there are eight of us at the moment, that will introduce a resolution, [inaudible 00:00:08] Senate resolution, this week, doing a couple things.

(00:13)
Number one, urging the Biden administration to continue to try to find a path to normalization between Saudi Arabia and Israel. We all believe that this vicious, barbaric attack by Hamas against our friends in Israel was designed to stop the Saudi-Israel normalization process. I told President Biden last week, we had a meeting, we had 10 senators go to the region, Saudi Arabia, Israel and Egypt, that everywhere in the region we heard the same thing, that the Iranians’ worst nightmares are reconciliation of the Arab world with Israel.

(00:52)
And the Biden administration’s done a very good job in my view of keeping this thing moving forward and alive to do agreements between us and Saudi Arabia, to have a strategic relationship with the Kingdom. And in return, they would recognize Israel, which would effectively end the Arab-Israeli conflict. The worst nightmare for Iran, as I said before, is for the Arab world to reconcile with Israel and move toward the light, away from the darkness. The Crown Prince in Saudi Arabia has a vision for his country called 2030. The Iranians have a vision for the world called 1130. Went to Iran in 1130, but I don’t want to go back.

(01:31)
So we have Senator Sullivan, Britt, Thune, and Collins, and myself on our side, Blumenthal, Rosen, Manchin, and Gillibrand on the Democratic side. We’ll hear from Senator Blumenthal here shortly. We believe that the APAC, a phenomenal group here in town, will be supporting our resolution. The Republican Jewish Coalition, Christians United for Israel, get all these groups urging members to sign on.

(01:59)
So it pushes for peace, but it also firmly stands behind our friends in Israel’s right to defend themselves. And we focus in this resolution on the fact that the president has rightly chosen to move major military assets into the region. Two carrier battle groups, a nuclear sub. And we talk about that extensively because we believe that’s the right decision. Now, why are these assets there? They have one purpose, to deter Iran from expanding the war.

(02:33)
There’s two things that could happen here that would expand this war. If Americans are killed by Iranian proxies in Syria and Iraq, we believe that would be a provocation deserving a military response. We’ve had over 50 American soldiers injured in Iraq and Syria since October the 7th by Iranian backed proxies in Syria and Iraq. One of the fears is that Hezbollah could open up a second front in the north against Israel. They have hundreds of thousands of rockets, some are precision-guided. That would be a very bad situation for Israel.

(03:13)
And what we intend to do is urge administration go to the source of the problem. The source of the problem is the Ayatollah and his henchman. This religious theocracy is on a quest to purify Islam, that’s why the Sunni Arabs feel so threatened, to destroy the state of Israel and come after us, America and others, who are infidels. If you don’t believe me, listen to what they’re saying.

(03:36)
So this resolution applauds President Biden’s decision to move military assets forward and urges him to keep all options on the table regarding the threats we are receiving from Iran in the region, including the use of military force. We’ve had four airstrikes I think in the last couple of weeks, based on attacks of our forces by Shiite militia supported by Iran in Syria and Iraq, we’ve hit in Syria. We’ve been lucky, no American has died, 50 have been hurt.

(04:11)
Here’s our statement in a bipartisan fashion. If Iran continues to threaten our troops in Syria and Iraq, the right response militarily would be in my view to hit the IRGC training bases and infrastructure inside of Iran. If there’s an expansion of the war where Hezbollah goes all in trying to overwhelm the state of Israel, the right response for the United States would be to hit Iran. My advice to the Biden administration is knock them out of the oil business. They’re the largest state-sponsor of terrorism on the planet, the Iranians. They have refineries that are out in the open. They could be fairly easily put out of the oil business.

(04:55)
So this resolution has two components, urging the continued march toward peace, urging real deterrent so the war doesn’t spread. And the deterrent message that we need to be sending is to the Iranians, if this war expands to the Ayatollah, if you kill an American in Syria and Iraq, if you try to overwhelm Israel by activating Hezbollah, we’re coming after you. Thank you.

Thanks, Senator Graham. This resolution is really the result of our trip to Israel, but also to Egypt and Saudi Arabia, all around the region. The common view is that Iran is a toxic, malign force and has to be deterred.

(05:57)
This message basically says we support the President 1000% in his efforts to deter a widening of this war. It says to Iran, “We’re holding you responsible for your proxies. If this war widens, as a result of what Hezbollah or the Quds Force or the IGRC does, we’re holding you accountable. Don’t be reckless, don’t be stupid. You don’t want a war with the United States of America.” And the United States of America doesn’t want a war in the Middle East that’s wider than what it is right now.

(06:43)
So we are saying to the President, “We’re behind you when you say, ‘Don’t.’ Don’t, don’t, don’t.” It’s that simple. And I think the bipartisan support that we have here reflects the kind of support we’ll have in the Senate as a whole because we want to make sure that the war that’s ongoing right now, the conflict in the Middle East between Israel and Hamas, stays contained there. The simple fact of the matter is the United States has already shot down a number of missiles from Houthis, so we’ve sent that message in kinetic real time. We are attacking the IRGC surrogates in Syria, killing their people when they come against us. The president has shown that he is unreluctant to use United States force where it is necessary to deter Iran, and that he will hold Iran responsible for its surrogates and proxies.

(08:17)
There’s no question here that Hamas would not have the military capability it does without Iran. Hezbollah would not have 150,000 precision missiles without Iran. The Houthis would not have their arms without Iran. And that is the reason that the entire Middle East wants this kind of deterrence. And we met with the Crown Prince, MBS. We met with the president of Egypt, President El-Sisi. We met with Prime Minister Netanyahu and his war cabinet. The common refrain is deter a widening of the war.

(09:06)
And the reason is very simply that they want a path to peace and stability, which Iran wants to block. There’s no secret anywhere that the reason for Hamas’s timing here is very simply that in fact, as the Crown Prince said, Israel and Saudi Arabia were moving, quote, “closer every day” to normalizing their relationship. And that is an anathema to Iran, which thrives on conflict and war. Peace and stability are what the vast majority of people in the Middle East want, and they should, because it’s the key to their economic prosperity.

(09:54)
So we’re going to continue to urge every measure in the economic sphere that can be done through sanctions, through tightening of enforcement of existing sanctions, and new sanctions that may be imposed. And I believe there’ll be very, very strong bipartisan support for that path as well, which is necessary and useful to cut off the flow of revenue to Hamas and Hezbollah from Iran’s sale of oil and the revenues it derives from it.

(10:32)
On the economic front, I think there is much more that can be done, and I think the administration is very receptive and eager to explore a number of new avenues. And we had a very, very productive meeting with the president on Wednesday night, and I think we have a lot of shared views and certainly shared values.

Well, thank you Lindsey and Senator Blumenthal. I’m going to repeat a little bit of what both just said, but the issue of Iran’s role in October 7th has been debated in the intelligence community. We certainly asked about it when we were on our trip in Israel and Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

(11:27)
But as Senator Blumenthal just stated, there’s no Hamas without Iran. There’s no Hezbollah without Iran. There’s no Houthis without Iran. Those groups are funded, trained, and supplied by the Iranians. That is a fact. And it’s not just the Iranians backing proxies to kill Israelis, which we’ve seen, they have been killing American citizens for decades. I don’t think it gets enough attention, but the Quds Force was supplying Iraqis Shia militias with very sophisticated IEDs, starting in about 2005, 2006, 2007. The numbers of American soldiers killed and wounded, over 2000. That’s directly related to the Quds Force, the Iranians, Soleimani. Over 600 killed, our men and women, the best of this country killed, by the Iranians. That’s recent history, by the way.

(12:33)
So I have been very critical of the Biden administration’s policies towards Iran. But what we’re doing today is we’re looking forward, and not just with regard to this resolution, but what Senator Blumenthal just mentioned, there is strong bipartisan support to reimpose and tighten the economic sanctions, the oil sanctions. To reimpose the ballistic missile sanctions, which expired at the UN three weeks ago. To impose secondary sanctions. To go to companies who invest in the Iranian oil and gas sector and use American leverage and muscle to get them to divest. There is a whole suite of things we can be doing right now as a country to weaken Iran and choke them off. This is not kinetic. This is just good old-fashioned, hard reimposition of serious sanctions.

(13:36)
I raised this issue with the President of the United States on Wednesday, to Senator Blumenthal’s point, I think we’re hopefully pushing on an open door when it comes to this administration. I recently raised this with the Secretary of Defense as well, who knows a lot about Iran. So we have a resolution here that’s really important because it’s bipartisan. I recently sent a letter with a number of senators to Secretary Blinken, focusing on this economic sanction, oil sanction, ballistic missile sanction component of levers of American power relative to Iran. And our message is, there is strong bipartisan support to do that, and we are strongly encouraging the Biden administration to do it as well. Hopefully we’re pushing on an open door, that was the feeling we got in the meeting last week, but it remains to be seen, but I’m hopeful that that’s going to happen.

Good, thanks.

Hi, Senators. Thank you guys for doing this. You mentioned if hostilities extend on the Lebanese border, you think it’s appropriate to just strike Iran, not even to hit back in Lebanon. As you know, there’s already been a lot of back and forth fighting, three Israeli soldiers were injured on Friday. Israeli strikes have killed multiple Lebanese as well. So at what point would you think that [inaudible 00:15:03]?

When it becomes a game-changer. You’ll know it when you see it. If Hezbollah launches a significant sustained attack on Israel using precision guided weapons, threatening the Israeli economy, the livelihood of the Israeli people that could lead to large casualties, then you hit Iran. That’s when they get out of their oil business.

(15:32)
I’ll let Israel have a say about this. We rely upon our friends in Israel to tell us what’s going on, but an escalation that I’ve just described, if it does occur where there’s sustained major missile attack incursions by Hezbollah against Israeli civilians and IDF forces, then we would urge the president to launch an attack against Iran. If an American is killed by the proxies that we’re talking about, if these continue, then the target set should be in Iran to hit the IRG training facilities. The paragliders that came in to Israel by Hamas, were actually we were trained in Iran. So that’s what I would say.

And President Biden was supportive of that? Senator Sullivan mentioned he felt there was an open door to some your …

There’s definitely an open door on economic sanctions. I would anticipate the administration will move toward stronger economic sanctions, or support our efforts in the Congress to move toward stronger economic sanctions, particularly more enforcement. A lot of these sanctions depend on going behind the fiction of fleet ownership to determine exactly what oil is being carried by ships. And so for example, to sanction the ports, sanction ship owners, sanction anyone who deals with them. Enforce these kinds of sanctions more rigorously I think will meet with a lot of support in the Congress and hopefully in the administration.

(17:20)
I would just say about responses to Iran attacks on Israel or the United States, I have a lot of confidence, from what I’ve seen so far, that our Secretary of Defense and president will be a good judge of what is proportionate and appropriate. But Iran should be on notice that we want to support the President in efforts to deter them, and we will be behind the president in deterrence efforts, 100% on a bipartisan basis. And they should have no doubt that if they are so reckless and stupid as to attack Israel through Hezbollah or any of their other proxies in a way that requires our response, we will support whatever is proportionate.

Thank you, Senator. On striking Iran, wouldn’t Congress have to pass an AUMF to do that? And also, you have previously said Israel should fight in Gaza and framed it in the context of a religious war, which they appear to be doing in Northern Gaza. In addition to the higher Palestinian death toll, don’t you think this could make escalation with Iran more likely?

Well, I believe it’s a religious war on Iran’s part. Clearly the Israelis are willing to live in peace with people in the neighborhood. You got the Abraham Accords. Israel’s not the problem. They’re willing to do deals where their Arab neighbors, have done deals with their Arab neighbors. You had a new regime in Iran. Who knows? The Iranians are the religious fanatics that sponsor Hamas, who are religious fanatics, who want to wipe out the Jewish people. If you don’t believe me, listen to what they say.

(19:08)
In terms of how the operations have gone, Israel I think has been very concerned about civilian casualties on the Palestinian side. You got to realize, as we talk, Hamas is underneath a hospital. They’re launching military attacks from a hospital. These are the bastards by any definition, so give Israel the time and space to do what they need to do. I’d like to lessen civilian casualties where possible, I’d like this conflict to be over sooner rather than later. And I’d like a new day for the Palestinians after this is over, after you destroy Hamas something better comes about for the Palestinians.

(19:50)
As to Iran, I think the target set needs to be on the table in Iran. We’ve had four strikes, they’ve all been in Syria. The last one seems to be a little bolder. I’m just telling everybody here that if our soldiers, one soldier, gets killed in Syria and Iraq, I’m blaming Iran. If there’s an escalation in the north by Hezbollah or any other place to overwhelm the one and only Jewish state Israel, I’m going to be pushing to hit Iran. Reagan hit Iran. Trump hit Iran,

(20:24)
Here’s what I think. If they get in a war with us, they’ll lose, they know that. They need to pay a price they haven’t paid yet, and that price should be the IRGC infrastructure in Iran should not be able to sleep well at night if this can continues, and the oil refineries should be knocked out if they continue their effort to expand this war.

And the AUMF, Senator?

We don’t need an AUMF. They’ve got all the power he needs.

About 90 minutes from now will be a massive pro-Israel rally on the Mall. What’s your reaction to that and what impact do you think that’ll have on Congress and the administration?

Well, it’s free country. People all over the country are having a say. “From the river to the sea” is not free speech to me, it is a threat to the survival of Israel. You’re going to have thousands of people come up here and urge us to stand by Israel. Senator Blumenthal has been unbelievably good on this issue. There’s nobody in Congress has been more forward-leaning of trying to, one, limit the war, and two, give Israel the time and space.

(21:28)
So this resolution was designed to reinforce the message that we want peace, not war. We’re urging a reconciliation of the Arab world with Israel in this resolution. We’re urging more economic sanctions to deter Iran. But we’re also recognizing all of the military assets in the region are ready to be used and should be used against Iran if this war expands.

I will just say about the rally, these voices need to be heard. And the visual of these tens of thousands of people on the Mall will send a powerful signal to the world about support of the United States, bipartisan support across the country for Israel.

(22:14)
And I would say, most important in these next days and weeks and months, is that we sustain the bipartisan support in the United States Congress. It’s a long tradition. My first trip to Israel as a United States senator was with John McCain and Lindsey Graham in a bipartisan trip.

In 1812.

And that’s the tradition we want to maintain. And this resolution is not an AUMF. It specifically says that the use of force has to be done in accord with constitutional processes. It is a resolution that essentially says, “Let’s deter a wider war by showing American bipartisan strength.”

Senator, on kind of that last point, the text of this resolution is saying that the president should keep all options on the table when it comes to the economic sanctions or kinetic measures, but you are both speaking in ways and terms that go much harder than that. You’re saying that you think you have agreement, or at least the open door [inaudible 00:23:24] of the White House, about the need for economic [inaudible 00:23:27], potentially the need for a strike against Iran.

(23:29)
Why doesn’t this resolution actually reflect that in those terms? Does that mean that either there’s not really enough bipartisan support to write that down, a resolution like this, or is this a precursor to something else, and we’ll see those things that you’re saying reflected in some sort of actual act of combat?

Well, we want to get a bipartisan resolution on the table that talks about just what you said. There is bipartisan support to continue the Saudi-Israeli normalization. I’ve been pretty hard on the Biden administration. I have bipartisan support. I’m giving them bipartisan support to normalize between Saudi and Israel. That’s where I think they’re doing a really good job. 50 Americans have been wounded and injured by Iranian proxy attacks. It’s my feeling around here that most people are tired of that. The Syrian response by the administration, I’ll accept that as being okay, but if this continues, you need to put Iran in the cross hairs in Iran.

(24:22)
So that’s what we’re trying to tell the world. “Iran, you expand this war, there won’t be an AUMF. We don’t need one, just go for it. Just hit you where it hurts.” That’s my message to the Iranians, that “you’ve miscalculated here.” There is a growing sense that the Iranian regime is the root of all this evil. That you’ll never have a normal world as long as you have a crazy Ayatollah running Iran. And to the crazy Ayatollah and to its religious fanatic, Hamas and Hezbollah, you’re right on the edge here in terms of expanding this war. And if it does expand by Hezbollah and it does expand in Syria and Iraq, the target set should be Iran. That’s what I believe.

I’ll answer that question very simply. If it were up to me, this resolution would consist of one word, “don’t.” In fact, it would be don’t, don’t, don’t. Now, I don’t think the parliamentarian would allow that kind of resolution, but that’s what this resolution says.

(25:29)
And the Iranians will get it, and hopefully they’ll get it today, even before it’s passed, that we stand behind the President. We don’t want war, they shouldn’t want war. But the Guns of August can reoccur in this century just as they did in the last. And we want to avoid any stupid mistakes on the part of Iran. Any recklessness, any zealot trying to fire some missile at Tel Aviv or Jerusalem and launch a Hezbollah attack or another Houthi effort on a massive scale. There are all kinds of pitfalls for Iran. It can avoid them if it listens to Congress when we tell them we’re going to be behind the president.

And finally, we got to go, we’re saying “don’t,” they do. We need to stop the doing. Don’t is a good thing to say, but it’s got to be backed up by some real serious consequences. So if you continue to do, this is what’s coming your way. We’re going to hit you hard in every sphere of influence, economic and military. We are on the edge right now. The Iranians can make some decisions one way or the other, if you choose … Choose wisely. Thanks.

Okay, thanks everyone.