Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) appears on “Meet the Press” in Washington D.C. on Oct. 20, 2024. Photo: William B. Plowman/NBC via Getty Images
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a meeting in Jerusalem on Saturday to “do what you have to do” in order to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, a spokesperson for Graham told Axios. Why it matters: Graham is close to President-elect Trump and in recent years has been highly influential in shaping Trump’s Middle East policies.
• Netanyahu wants Trump’s support to take harsher steps against Iran, including military action against its nuclear program, Israeli officials said.
• The issue was front-and-center during the two-hour meeting Netanyahu’s confidant Ron Dermer had with Trump at Mar-a-Lago last Sunday.
Driving the news: The Israeli strike on Iran’s Parchin military complex in late October destroyed sophisticated equipment needed to design and test plastic explosives that surround uranium in a nuclear device and are needed to detonate it, as Axios first reported.
• Israeli officials described the equipment as a “bottleneck” in Iran’s nuclear research program and said that without it, it will be more difficult for Iran to develop a nuclear explosive device if it chooses to do so.
• Iran so far hasn’t retaliated for the Israeli attack despite threatening to do so. Israeli officials said they think Trump’s election victory made the Iranians rethink their response.
Behind the scenes: Graham met on Saturday with Netanyahu and Israel’s new Minister of Defense Israel Katz. Both Netanyahu and Katz didn’t issue statements about the meeting.
• Graham said in a statement to Axios after the meeting that he “has never been more worried about an Iranian nuclear breakout than right now.”
• “It is in America’s interest to ensure the Iranian regime does not posses a nuclear weapon. This is a critical and dangerous moment for our friends in Israel and the world at large. It is imperative that the United States is seen and heard as having Israel’s back against the threat coming from Iran,” Graham said.
The other side: Iran has denied it is pursuing nuclear weapons. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in a statement earlier this month that “Iran is not after nuclear weapons, period.”
What to watch: The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) board of governors will meet in the coming days and is expected to vote on a censure resolution against Iran for its lack of cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog.
• Iran has said it could respond by taking new measures to advance its nuclear program. One of the main concerns in Israel and the U.S. is that the Iranians increase the level of uranium enrichment from 60% to 90% purity, which is weapons grade.