Following Lindsey Graham’s death at 71, a past speech by the U.S. senator at the Munich Security Conference has resurfaced. In his remarks, Graham delivered a blunt message to Saudi Arabia, urging its leadership to de-escalate regional disputes and focus on countering Iran’s influence. He warned that conflicts in Yemen and Sudan could strengthen Tehran and undermine regional security. Graham called on U.S. partners to think strategically, overcome divisions and avoid allowing rivalries to distract from what he described as a historic regional moment.
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00:00If we back out now, it'll be the biggest mistake we've made, far worse than the Syrian redline, far worse
00:07than Afghanistan.
00:08You can't say, keep protesting, we got you back, help's on the way, and nothing happened.
00:14What I'm going to tell anybody that will listen in the Mideast, don't let this moment pass.
00:21Be smart, but don't be locked down with fear.
00:24And as to MBS and MBZ, knock it off, Saudi Arabia. Knock it off.
00:31Do you believe this, and do you believe that President Trump should do what he said he would do?
00:37Here's what I believe. They're the weakest they've been since 1979.
00:42It is a regime with American blood on its hand.
00:46It's a great disruptor of the region.
00:49One, it's a religious theocracy that if they could get a nuclear weapon, they would use it to advance their
00:55religious goals, which are three.
00:57Purify Islam, destroy the Jewish state, and come after us.
01:01Hiller wrote a book. He wanted to kill all the Jews. Nobody believed him.
01:04I believe that Ayatollah and his regime, not the Iranian people, are religious fanatics, religious Nazis.
01:11Hiller wanted a master race. They wanted a master religion.
01:14So why don't I mention that? There's no negotiating with these people, in my view.
01:20They're hell-bent on enacting agenda based on religion that teaches them to lie, teaches them to destroy, in the
01:28name of God.
01:29So President Trump said something that's going to be the best thing he ever said, or maybe the worst thing
01:34he ever said.
01:36When asked, what should the protesters do? Keep protesting.
01:40Now that came from a man who genuinely believed that. That wasn't a calculated response.
01:46Ronald Reagan went to the Berlin Wall, and we still talk about it.
01:50He didn't say, do you mind lowering it? He said, tear it down.
01:54He was clear. He was concise.
01:56So President Trump gave an answer, keep protesting, help is on the way.
02:00And a couple of days later, he said, it's time for new leadership in Iran, because the Ayatollah and his
02:07crowd, they're bad guys, they're terrible guys.
02:10You put all three of those statements together, then what do you have?
02:13You have a president standing with the people.
02:15What do the people want?
02:17They want the oppression to end.
02:19They want to start over with a new Iran.
02:22So here's what I would say.
02:23Are you backing regime change?
02:25Yeah, I have. Totally.
02:26If you're not, you're crazy.
02:28Military regime change.
02:29Yeah, I'm backing the people who want a country they can live in without having their daughter killed.
02:35But I'm trying to figure out, because there's a huge flotilla in the Arabian Sea that President Trump is using
02:40as a negotiating tactic.
02:42He's just said, as you heard me say, that he would prefer negotiating.
02:45I prefer negotiation, too.
02:46Let me finish my thought.
02:47Okay.
02:48If we back out now, it'll be the biggest mistake we've made, far worse than the Syrian red line, far
02:56worse than Afghanistan.
02:56You can't say, keep protesting, we got your back, help's on the way, and nothing happened.
03:04That's why I am confident that President Trump will get an outcome consistent with those three statements, through diplomacy or
03:11military force.
03:12Let me just say this.
03:13Any deal about Iran has to come to the Senate.
03:16I'm not going to bless a bad deal.
03:19They're not out in the street because of limiting the nuclear ambitions of the Ayatollah.
03:24They're out in the street because life is miserable, people can't have a decent quality of life, they live in
03:30fear, and most Iranians have had it, they'd like a new start.
03:35The day after.
03:36Okay.
03:36Well, if the Ayatollah goes down, we'll work on the day after.
03:39I think we'll have a better chance of having friends with the protesters than the Ayatollah.
03:44Here's the day after I worry the most about.
03:46The day after, we blinked.
03:49The day after, we made promises that we didn't keep.
03:52We made assurances that fell short.
03:55That day after is generational damage.
03:58Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, they don't go away, they come back stronger.
04:02The Arabs go back into their corner, and the people who've been protesting will be systematically destroyed.
04:08The day after, if we get it right, the mothership of terrorism goes down.
04:12Hamas, the Houthis, Hezbollah, they've lost their biggest benefactor.
04:16Saudi Israel is the most likely outcome.
04:19So I'll end with this.
04:21I've never seen a more consequential time in history as right now.
04:25If we can take this regime down through the people, their desires, not ours, and replace it with a friend,
04:32not a foe, be the biggest change in a thousand years.
04:35If we don't get it right and we blink, it'll be the biggest change in a thousand years in the
04:40wrong way.
04:41Okay, Senator.
04:42And as President of the European Parliament, does the EU believe in these fighting words?
04:46You've just designated the IRGC as a terrorist organization.
04:50Iran has responded, saying it would cause, you know, consider, you know, all your armies terrorists.
04:55But it marks a shift for Europe.
04:56Where does Europe stand at this crucial moment?
05:00We were mentioning timelines before.
05:03It's been 47 years, and that's as long as I've been alive, and that's as long as we've been asking
05:09for freedom in Iran.
05:11Now, what we saw in the beginning of the year, and that was the turning point, and for us in
05:15the European Parliament, it could have happened much earlier.
05:18Ever since the protests, we saw 22, 23, when we saw the killings, but now everybody's on the street asking
05:25for freedom.
05:26And that is the departing point of everything we should do, and that is why we pushed across the board.
05:32There is very few things the European Parliament can align on or find union meeting on, but this was one
05:37of them, that if we're going to stand for the freedom in Iran, that we need to start, then we
05:43need to start by designating the IRGC as a terrorist organization.
05:47We needed all the European Union governments to accept, and they did, all 27 of them.
05:53I didn't think that would happen a few weeks ago, but it did, because that is the moment where you
06:01had the German Chancellor who said this is a regime that's on its last legs, when we see that this
06:06is a regime that has been not only oppressing its population, but sowing, by its own, instability in the whole
06:14region.
06:14And that is what we need to make sure, Senator Graham was talking, that this is the red line we
06:19can't go beyond.
06:20That's the line that we can't go back on, where we can go back to even more, let's say, courage,
06:28confidence that Hezbollah or Hamas would get.
06:31And that would be the worst problem we could have as a European Union as well, because we're pretty close
06:37to that.
06:38Karim Sajjapur, you're a close student of the Iranian situation, and you're in Washington, so you know a little bit
06:45about what senators and others, the analysts and the experts, the policymakers, are doing.
06:51President Trump, I think, evoked the Venezuela method recently.
06:56Now, to me, the Venezuela method decapitates the leader and leaves the regime in.
07:01How did you read it?
07:03I think, Christian, that virtually everyone in Washington, including President Trump, if they could push a button and get rid
07:10of the Iranian regime, they absolutely would.
07:13What I think the Trump administration worries about is some of the fallout we saw in the aftermath of the
07:18Iraq War or Libya.
07:20And, you know, Iran is a different country than those places.
07:23But, you know, in my view, to understand this administration, probably a psychology degree is more valuable than a political
07:31science degree.
07:32And if we're trying to get inside the head of the president's...
07:35A good golf swing.
07:36A good golf swing as well, which Senator Graham, I'm sure, has.
07:38But on three major occasions, this president gambled on Iran.
07:44In 2018, he left the nuclear deal.
07:47In 2020, he assassinated Qasem Soleimani.
07:49Last summer, he dropped 14 bunker busters on Iran's nuclear program.
07:54A lot of his own aides recommended against those policies.
07:59He feels that each of them were vindicated.
08:01And for that reason, I think he's much more likely to act than we are to reach a nuclear deal.
08:07Senator, do you think it would be...
08:10Who are you?
08:11Do you think it would be a success or acceptable to get rid of the leadership a la Venezuela, but
08:19do a deal with the people who are in power?
08:23Trump is like that.
08:24He does a deal with those people who are in power.
08:25He abandoned the Venezuelan human rights leader who won a nuclear...
08:30Sorry, nuclear.
08:31A Nobel Peace Prize.
08:32What are the Iranian Democrats meant to feel?
08:34She's not the force to bring the country together.
08:38He believes that there are groups there that are going to go down a different road.
08:42If you're in charge of Venezuela now and you want to keep doing what Maduro did, you're an idiot.
08:47You're either going to get killed or go to jail.
08:50So, Iraq.
08:51We take everybody out.
08:52That didn't work well.
08:53Here's what you need to understand.
08:55The likelihood of getting worse than the Ayatollah in Iran is pretty low, don't you think, Crown Prince?
09:01I don't think most people are out in the streets saying, I wish you'd be harder on us.
09:05Most people out in the streets said, I'm tired of living this way.
09:08I'm tired of being oppressed.
09:09I'm tired of having no money.
09:10I want a better country.
09:12I want my country back.
09:13I want this guy to go.
09:15The risk associated with the regime change is real.
09:18We have troops in the region.
09:20They have ballistic missiles.
09:21But we're still the United States.
09:23They have F-14s.
09:25A lot has changed since Top Gun 1.
09:28We have an incredible capability.
09:31I know who would win a conflict.
09:33How do you bring this regime down?
09:36I think you do go after the oppressors.
09:39Kill the ones who kill the people.
09:40Their economy is in tatters.
09:43They've been beaten pretty badly.
09:45They're as weak as they can be, but they're still dangerous.
09:49Compare that to doing nothing.
09:51So, these are your choices.
09:54You either execute a plan using military capability of the United States with Israel,
10:00working with people on the ground to bring the Ayatollah's regime down,
10:06or you do nothing but have talked.
10:09If the Ayatollah is still standing, Trish John, when this is all over,
10:14it will be a disaster of generational proportions.
10:17He stood down the West.
10:19He did it yet again.
10:20And all the people who are on the fence will slowly be rounded up and killed over the coming years
10:26in Iran.
10:28Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis will get stronger, not weaker.
10:31The Arabs will continue to go back to their corner.
10:34I'm going to Israel, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia next week.
10:38Here's the message.
10:40If we can get it through diplomacy, fine, but we've had it with this regime.
10:45Think big.
10:46The people are the difference.
10:48When we started this debate, Crown Prince, the people had not spoken.
10:52They've spoken with their lives.
10:53How much more can they speak?
10:55They've been shot down in the street like dogs.
10:58These are the people you want to help.
11:00These are the people that will change history.
11:03So, what I'm going to tell anybody that will listen in the Mideast,
11:07don't let this moment pass.
11:10Be smart, but don't be locked down with fear.
11:13And as to MBS and MBZ, knock it off, Saudi Arabia.
11:18Knock it off.
11:20I'm tired of this crap.
11:22MBZ is not a Zionist.
11:24And you're emboldening Iran by having this conflict.
11:29Now, I know they've got differences in Yemen, and they've got differences in Sudan,
11:33but we've got to think big picture.
11:35To any leader in the region that doesn't understand, you're on the verge of history.
11:41History will judge you poorly because you are.
11:43Senator, they've been telling the president not to do this.
11:46They don't want another war.
11:47They don't want another military intervention.
11:48How should we read that?
11:49Have you ever been to the Mideast?
11:50I have, yes, sir.
11:51My whole career.
11:51They say one thing, they do another.
11:53Here's what I want.
11:54She grew up there.
11:56Yeah, I want them to step up to the plate because Iran wants three things to purify Islam.
12:01Sunni Islam will go if they were up to the Ayatollah.
12:05They want to destroy Israel and they want to kill us.
12:06We've got a lot in common here.
12:08Okay.
12:10On that note, what about the EU?
12:13Because this really is fighting talk.
12:15Okay.
12:16Do you prefer a negotiation over the nuclear issue, or do you prefer whatever it takes,
12:22including military intervention, for the end of the regime?
12:25First of all, I've been asked this question, like, would you go back in time and redo what
12:30was done in terms of nuclear discussions?
12:32I think it would be wrong for us to go back and say what was done right, what was done
12:36wrong.
12:37The situation we are in now is that the time for this regime needs to end.
12:44How does it end?
12:45Are we talking about politically anointing?
12:49Are we talking about allowing for structures and frameworks to be created for the Iranian
12:55people to choose for themselves who should lead them, who should be the one that takes
13:01them into the democracy that we've been working on for so many years?
13:06Now, the way we see it and how we've been looking at, and this is by us talking to communities
13:11in our countries, by us trying to making sure that when there was a technology blackout,
13:17they could not get contacted.
13:19That's where the European Union comes in.
13:20We're the number one donors of humanitarian aid into making sure that we can help the people
13:26on the ground in order for a solution to be found.
13:30Now, would we prefer the diplomatic solution?
13:33I want to perhaps give a little bit of a sideline.
13:37I would certainly not do what was done this week by sending a congratulatory message to
13:43the regime saying, happy anniversary, and then call it routine diplomacy.
13:47I think the time for routine diplomacy is over.
13:50Are we going to out?
13:50Well, I'll tell you after, at the end of the program.
13:53But, you know, I think it's really a situation where we, in the democratic world, coming together
14:01and say, how are we going to help Iranians be free?
14:05The way we do it is by the European Union, by Europe, the United States, aligning on what
14:10they're going to do about a regime that has been oppressing a population for 47 years.
14:14And there, you will find, and the Senate, I mentioned the Senate, I work with Congress
14:20a lot.
14:21You will find full alignment.
14:23No, no, it's a good thing.
14:24We like working with Congress.
14:26I think my colleague, Mike Johnson, has a slightly more difficult job than me.
14:31To create majorities, but he does that, and I have to do the same.
14:34But that is where you can find, in all this discussion, in Munich, where a lot of is being
14:42concentrated on the EU and US relationship.
14:46On this, there's alignment.
14:48And I think that should come out of this conference as well.
14:50Well, just to keep us in the realm of current reality, the regime is still there.
14:58It has its methods.
15:00Give us just a little bit of a reality check on what kind of support, if any, it still has,
15:06how it maintains.
15:07We know about the violence.
15:08We know about the repression.
15:09We've seen what happened when all these people came out and how they were so brutally killed,
15:15injured, detained, etc.
15:18But there is a structure, and their raison d'etre has been regime survival for 47 years.
15:26How do you see it now and in the next few weeks and months?
15:31You know, they say about dictatorships, Christian, that they always kill the most at the beginning
15:37and at the end.
15:38And I think we have entered the concluding era of the Islamic Republic, like the Soviet Union
15:44in the late 1980s.
15:46I describe them as a zombie regime.
15:48Dying ideology, dying leader, dying economy, dying legitimacy.
15:53They still do have lethal force.
15:54And I think what's going to be key to their survival is the unity of their security forces.
16:01They still have 150,000 plus Revolutionary Guardsmen.
16:05And I think, I would guess it has at most 15% popular support.
16:11And that's why your previous conversation was so critical, because 15% who are united can
16:17continue to kill en masse if the 80, 85% remain divided.
16:23And I know Reza Pallavi is sitting in the audience, but I'm going to ask you, I'm going to ask
16:28you, do you put your support behind Reza Pallavi?
16:32Are you ready to say he is the person that the United States is, or you yourself, I don't
16:38know whether you speak on behalf of the United States, but as a senior Senate Republican?
16:42No.
16:44Because that's not my job.
16:47I've been with him on every cable TV show known to man.
16:51I'm very impressed with the way he can articulate what's at stake.
16:55I'm sure he'll have a prominent role in Iran.
16:59Don't make it too hard.
17:01All we can do is help Iran have a chance to be free.
17:05If they screw it up, they screw it up.
17:07I'd rather give them a chance than not, because I know what I'm getting with the Ayatollah.
17:12But the difference is Trump, and he'll love hearing that, sort of.
17:17He's done something the other president did.
17:18He picked the people over the regime.
17:20We had the JCPO.
17:22That didn't work.
17:23Everything we've done, Europe, America, we haven't, we've done a lousy job standing out
17:27for the Iranian people.
17:29You know, Gaza, a lot of people protesting.
17:31Almost nobody's protesting for the Iranian people.
17:33But let me tell you what I think's going to happen here.
17:35I think Trump said three things that nobody else has said.
17:41And people are still fighting and still encouraged because of the president.
17:46They're getting weaker.
17:47We put tariffs on their oil.
17:49You had a very good, it is a zombie regime.
17:52You can't do business with Iran normally anymore.
17:5625% tariff, you buy their oil.
17:58So it's going to collapse because the people have had it.
18:03And what happens next, I don't know, but I do know this.
18:07If we pull the plug on the people, whatever problems associated with the day after, if
18:12the people went against the Ayatollah, or a fraction of the problems associated with
18:17the Ayatollah, killing his way out yet again, standing to murder another day.
18:23If you don't realize we're on the verge of history, you're missing a lot.
18:27We're talking weeks, not months.
18:29And when we do this, if we do, we're starting and we're not stopping.
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