A US Republican official has demanded a massive attack on Iran, urging Biden administration to blow the country “off the map”.
Amid rising tensions in the Middle East, Senator Lindsey Graham told the Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin not to show “weakness” after Iran-backed militias attacked U.S. troops in the region.
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Speaking on Fox News on Wednesday, the South Carolina Republican said he has been asking to blitz Iran and its proxies – especially Houthis – “for months” to send a clear message to Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah.
He said: “The Houthis are completely backed by Iran. Without Iran there are no Houthis.
“I have been saying for six months now…hit Iran.
“They have oil fields out in the open, they have the Revolutionary Guard headquarters you can see from space. Blow it off the map.”
“If you really want to protect American soldiers, make it real to the ayatollah [that if] you attack a solider through a proxy, we’re coming after you.”
Senator Graham’s comments come after Iran’s proxies have been attacking the US military bases in Iraq and Syria.
Tensions in the region are rising, especially after senior Iranian military general Sayyed Razi Mousavi was killed on Christmas Day in Syria by an alleged Israeli airstrike.
Tehran has vowed to seek revenge, swearing that Israel “will certainly pay for this crime”.
Foreign Minister of Iran Hossein Amir-Abdollahian wrote on X/Twitter that “Tel Aviv faces a tough countdown,” following his death.
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei led prayers at the funeral of the senior IRGC advisor on Thursday.
Thousands of Iranian people gathered on the streets to mourn the death of Mousavi.
In a television funeral speech, Chief of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard Gen. Hossein Salami addressed the crowd in front of the portrait of dead military general.
“Our revenge for the martyrdom of Sayyed Razi will be nothing less than the removal of the Zionist regime,” said Salami.
“I am hopeful that soon, God permitting, the great and honorable Palestinian fighters will wipe out the geographical and political name of this evil and fake regime.”
Mourners on the street chanted: “No compromise! No surrender! Battle with America!
Slogans like “Death to America, Death to Israel” were chanted as many waved yellow flags with the message “I am your [Israel’s] opponent”.
The killing of Iran’s top military general comes amid the ongoing fears of the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza broadening into a major Middle-Eastern conflict.
Iran’s proxy war groups including the Houthi rebels in Lebanon as well as those in Syria and Iraq have joined Hamas in attacking Israel.
In recent weeks daily strikes from land and air have escalated between Hezbollah and Israel along its border with Lebanon.
Houthi rebels have also attacked countless ships linked to Israel or its allies the UK and US to disrupt trade, even hijacking one entirely with an armed ambush onboard.
US president Joe Biden announced plans to directly intervene in the rebels’ ocean attacks after it vowed to continue striking cargo ships in one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes.
Just days ago the leader of the Houthi rebels swore to target American warships if Biden ordered any strikes against them.
Iran also claimed that Hamas’s October 7 attacks were in revenge for a 2020 assassination of a top Iranian general.
IRGC spokesman Ramazan Sharif branded the US strike that killed Qasem Soleimani a “terrorist act” – but Hamas denies it was their motivator for their massacres in Israel.
The military commander was blown up by a US drone in a strike ordered by former President Donald Trump.
It provoked a furious response from Iran who called on the UN’s Security Council to take formal action against both the US and Israel – which it also accused of assisting in the assassination hit.
But Commander Sharif has now backtracked and claimed his comments about the October 7 attacks being in “revenge” for the assassination of Soleimani were “misunderstood”.
Hamas has also denied the claim and reiterated the massacres were related to “the dangers threatening the Al-Aqsa Mosque”, referring to the key Islamic site on the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem.
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