'Containment off the table.' Graham
Photo: AFP
Senator: US must neuter Iran
Lindsey Graham says Obama will 'feel a lot of Republican support if he decides to be tough with Tehran beyond sanctions,' adding, 'Last thing world needs is nuclear-armed Iran'
The United States faces a possible war with Iran to curb its nuclear ambitions and a “period of confrontation” with China over its currency, a top US lawmaker warned Saturday.
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said his fellow conservative, fresh from their historic elections romp this week, support “bold” action to deal with Iran.
World Order
Defense minister pessimistic about upcoming nuclear talks, says 'Iran a major threat to world order'
If President Barack Obama “decides to be tough with Iran beyond sanctions, I think he is going to feel a lot of Republican support for the idea that we cannot let Iran develop a nuclear weapon,” he told the Halifax International Security Forum.
“The last thing America wants is another military conflict, but the last thing the world needs is a nuclear-armed Iran... Containment is off the table.”
The South Carolina Republican saw the US going to war with the Islamic republic “not to just neutralize their nuclear program, but to sink their navy, destroy their air force and deliver a decisive blow to the Revolutionary Guard, in other words neuter that regime.”
He spoke just days before expected nuclear talks will see US and Iranian officials sitting at the same table for discussions on Tehran’s nuclear drive. The two countries have lacked diplomatic ties since the Iran hostage crisis of 1979.
World powers led by Washington suspect Iran’s uranium enrichment program is aimed at making nuclear weapons, a charge Tehran denies.
US Democratic Senator Mark Udall, who joined Graham during a panel discussion at the forum in Halifax, Nova Scotia, urged continued sanctions against Iran. But he also noted that “every option is on the table,” a thinly veiled reference to possible military action.
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said negotiations were still at “the stage of diplomacy and sanctions.” “It’s not clear if this will work at the end,” he cautioned. “Iran is a major threat to any conceivable world order.”
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