Republican senators on Tuesday threw their weight behind a US attack against Iran, framing potential intervention as a path to regime change welcomed by protesters, as Democrats urged restraint and warned of backlash in interviews with Iran International.
“Help is on the way,” Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said. “Regime change is a result of the people not wanting to live in a country where a 16-year-old girl can be killed for not wearing the headscarf.”
“They don’t want to live a country governed by an Ayatollah who’s a religious fanatic,” he added. “I am following the people. They want a new life.”
Graham said the fall of the Islamic Republic would have major regional consequences.
“If this regime falls, it will be a godsend to America,” he said. “The largest state sponsor of terrorism will fall, Hamas, Hezbollah, and the good people of Iran will be in charge.”
Asked about timing, Graham said, “I’ll leave it up to the president, but if you saw his tweet today, I would say soon, because if we let it go much longer, people are going to doubt.”
Senator Markwayne Mullin also warned Tehran to take President Donald Trump’s threats seriously.
“The murderous regime and Iran needs to pay attention to what the president said,” Mullin told Iran International.
“The president made it very clear if you’re killing the innocent or simply protesting that he’ll come to the rescue and the president doesn’t bluff.”
“But it’s always on his timing when we’re ready to go,” Mullin added.
By contrast, Democratic senators urged restraint.
“My heart is broken for the people of Iran who are protesting, understandably, the economic failures and the repression of that regime,” Senator Richard Blumenthal said. “I think we should be very, very careful about any military operation there because it would backfire and actually bolster the regime.”
Senator Dick Durbin also cautioned against US intervention.
“I’m very concerned with the situation in Iran and statements made by President Trump about the demonstrators,” Durbin said. “I think we need to take care to make sure that we don’t overstep our boundaries.”
Referring to the Iraq war, he added: “When I was one of the 23 who voted against the invasion of Iraq, and I still think that that was the right vote, maybe one of the most important votes of my career.”
