[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 107 (Monday, June 23, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3485-S3488]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
IRAN
Mr. GRAHAM. Madam President, I would like to be recognized to make
some comments about the conflict we are watching unfold on our
television between Iran, Israel, and now the United States.
Someone asked me: What is this talk all about?
I think a good title would be: ``What is this all about?''
To the American people, what is this all about? Let me tell you what
it is all about. It is all about religion.
A fanatical string of Shi'ism is now in charge of Iran, and they have
three goals: to purify Islam--about 80 percent of Islam is Sunni; Saudi
Arabia is the center of that part of the religion--to purify Islam in
the image of the Ayatollah, to destroy the Jewish State, to drive us
out of the Mideast because we are infidels.
This is not a democracy. It is a theocracy. If you have got any time
on your hands, go on the internet and
[[Page S3486]]
check out the theological bases of this regime. You would understand
why Israel has to get this right as well as we do.
But it was not always that way. Iran is not inherently a radical
group of people, a radical place. As a matter of fact, it is a very
cultured place. It used to be one of the real ``Pearls of the Middle
East.''
Before 1979, Iran shared intelligence, had economic ties, and
military cooperation with Israel and the United States. This is from
1950, where Ben-Gurion--the first President of Israel--is talking to an
Iranian diplomat in Israel. Iran had a very vibrant Jewish population.
So it has not always been this way.
So what happened? They had a revolution. In 1979 to 1981, there was
an uprising in Iran that led to the installing of the Ayatollah as the
leader of Iran, the first Ayatollah Khomeini. Now we are on the second
one, Khamenei.
What is this thing all about? These are students pouring over the
U.S. Embassy. Our Embassy personnel--50 American hostages--were held
for 444 days by these nutjobs. They were subjected to intense physical
and psychological torture throughout their captivity, such as mob
executions, beatings, solitary confinement, and very bad living
conditions. This is what they did when they took over. They came after
us, held our people hostage, and treated us very brutally.
In 1984, the United States made Iran a state sponsor of terrorism
under U.S. law because of the way the Iranian regime, under the
Ayatollah, was conducting himself. They were wreaking havoc throughout
the region, and they were doing things against Israel and the United
States that justified their designation in 1984 as a state sponsor of
terrorism. And that has not changed.
Why are they a state sponsor of terrorism? Because they are
terrorists, and they support terrorists.
Hezbollah--$700 million, we project, was given to Iran by Hezbollah.
It is almost their entire budget. They are a terrorist group, mainly in
Lebanon, of the Shia branch of the tree.
Hamas, who conducted the October 7 attack against Israel--Israel
projects that 93 percent of Hamas's military budget came from Iran.
We have the Houthis. All of their missiles and rockets came from
Iran.
We have got Shiite groups in Iraq funded by Iran.
Why are they a state sponsor of terrorism? Because they sponsor
terrorism all over the world, and they did it with petrodollars from
the Iran nuclear deal and other sources of revenue, which was a really
bad idea. That is why Trump pulled out.
Here is the reporting over the period here:
Hamas-Iran alliance: Captured documents expose decades-long
terror funding.
When Israel began to liberate Gaza from Hamas and drive out Hamas
terrorists, they found a treasure trove of documents showing the
history between Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran--suitcases stuffed with
cash, U.S. flow of funds to Yemen to help the Houthis.
What else have they done other than funding terrorist groups? They
have threatened to kill American officials: President Trump, Brian
Hook, General McKenzie, Robert O'Brien, Mike Pompeo, former Secretary
of Defense Mark Esper. All these people were involved in the Soleimani
attack.
Why did we go after Soleimani? Because he was the leader of the more
radical elements of their military that had been targeting Americans
and he was planning to attack our forces in Iraq and Trump took him
out: in 1983, the Beirut barracks bombing, Hezbollah, supported by
Iran; Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia, a terrorist group
supported by Iran.
That is why they are terrorists. They have been coming after our
interests. They have attacked our shipping in the Red Sea, the Houthis
have. They couldn't fire one missile without Iranian support because
that is where all their rockets come from.
Some cast of characters here. The recent new President was sworn in,
in Iran. During the swearing-in of the Iranian President, the crowd
started chanting: ``Death to America,'' ``Death to America'' during the
swearing-in of the new President not long ago, July 30, 2024. It is not
quite a year ago.
People wonder what they are up to. Let me tell you what they are up
to. They are up to enacting a religious agenda that has no place for
anybody but them. If you are a Christian, they want to destroy your
faith. If you are Jewish, they want to wipe you off the planet. And if
you are a Muslim and you don't agree with them, which most don't, they
want to take over the entire faith and make you bend a knee to their
view. These people are religious fanatics.
What is this all about? Religion. Do you want any of these people to
have a nuclear weapon? I don't. They are religious Nazis.
Are there any telltale signs that may tell us what they are up to? Do
you really have to be Sherlock Holmes to figure this out? This is a
missile in Iran. In Hebrew, it says: ``Death to Israel.'' This is the
freaking missile they took a photo of in Hebrew that said ``Death to
Israel.'' I wonder what they want to do with that missile.
If you are confused about this regime, you should not be allowed to
drive because you are a danger to yourself and others. If you think
this is not our conflict, you have missed a lot. You have been like
asleep at the switch since 1979. You don't know anything about these
people. You are talking gibberish.
If you don't think this is our concern, look what they have done.
They have attacked Americans. They have American blood on their hands.
They are trying to build a nuclear bomb, and one of their targets is
us. How do I know that? Because that is what they say.
Last July, they were chanting, ``Death to America'' while they were
swearing in their President. We don't do that here. Why? Because we are
not crazy. These people are crazy. The Iranian people are not, but the
people ruling the place are fanatical religious Nazis. If you don't
think it is our concern, you really have missed a lot. You need to
study before you talk.
If that is not enough, the missile that says ``Death to Israel''--
let's see, when was this? Oh, 2015. ``Amid Nuke Talks, Ayatollah Says:
`Death to America.' '' This is during negotiations that Obama had.
In 2022, they had 95 pounds of highly enriched uranium at 60 percent.
Is there a commercial purpose for uranium enriched at 60 percent? No.
In 2025, 3 years later, they have 900 pounds of this stuff. So,
clearly, they are not stopping their enrichment program; they are
accelerating it, and they are enriching it at a level that has no
commercial purpose.
They actually have one reactor in Iran. The fuel for that reactor
comes from Russia. They haven't taken 1 gram of their enrichment
program to run the peaceful reactor they claim they want. To run a
reactor, you need to enrich between 3\1/2\ and 5 percent, not 60.
Weapons-grade enrichment is 90 percent; 60 to 90 is like walking across
the street.
If you can't figure out what they have been up to, again, you should
not be allowed to drive. They are trying to build nuclear weapons. They
are making material consistent with a bomb, not a peaceful nuclear
powerplant. They chant ``Death to America.'' They chant ``Death to
Israel.'' They kill their own people. They are the largest sponsor of
terrorism on the planet. They have been that way since 1979.
I wonder what they want to do.
The Ayatollah's nuclear ambitions have been spread and fed for
decades now. I take him seriously.
Hitler wrote a book. Nobody believed he wanted to kill all the Jews.
They should have. Hitler wrote a book about a master race. People
should have taken him seriously. They wrote it off as just talk. They
excused Hitler's provocative behavior, saying: He is just saying these
things.
Well, we know that didn't work out too well. Last month was the 80th
anniversary of the end of World War II, the Nazi regime. One of the
centerpieces of the Nazi regime was to kill the Jewish people. They put
the Jewish people in concentration camps, gas chambers, and they tried
to extinguish an entire race of people--our Jewish brothers and
sisters--killing 6 million.
Just a few years ago, the Jewish people got back to the numbers
before the war. Eighty years later, we are having a discussion about
what should we do, as civilized people, regarding Iran. I will tell you
what we should do. We should do something different than we did with
Hitler--because if we do the same old thing, there goes Israel and,
eventually, us.
[[Page S3487]]
So their nuclear ambitions are not to build peaceful nuclear
powerplants and fuel them. Their enrichment program is designed to make
bombs. They intend to use these bombs because they are religious
fanatics.
Does anybody doubt that if Adolf Hitler had a bomb, he would have
used it? If you doubt that the Ayatollah would use a bomb against the
State of Israel, you don't understand his religion.
What drove Hitler: a sick, twisted, distorted view of the master
race.
These people want a master religion, not a master race. They want to
dominate the world religiously. That is what they are all about. They
export terrorism in the name of religion. They support groups that want
to take down secular regimes. They want a master religion like the
Nazis wanted a master race.
And let me tell you what our friends in Israel are saying: Hell, no.
Once is enough.
So what should Israel do? Here is what Israel should do. They should
fight back.
To the American people: What would our country do if there was one
missile shot into South Carolina or Alabama from a foreign power that
killed our citizens? Everybody in South Carolina and Alabama would be
wanting to end the terror and go after the people who did it, and it
would be the entire Nation.
Why should we expect Israel to tolerate what we wouldn't tolerate?
There have been over 1,000 missiles shot into Israel. Since their
founding, people have been trying to kill them all. Hamas, Hezbollah,
the Houthis have one thing in common: They are all funded by Iran. All
the weapons come from the Iranians.
What is this all about? Killing the Jews and, eventually, us and
dominating the world religiously. If you think that is weird, then you
need to get on the internet and listen to what they are doing. You need
to watch their behavior. And they mean what they say. And don't be like
the people in the thirties that got it wrong. Israel is not going to
get it wrong the second time.
Donald Trump. God bless President Donald J. Trump. I am so glad he
won. What has he tried to do? Make peace, not war. He gave the
Ayatollah 60 days to find a peaceful settlement regarding their
enrichment program. They could have nuclear power, but they can't
enrich. There are 20 nations that have nuclear power that get the fuel
for their reactors outside of their country. We would have done that
for Iran. They were tapping him along. Then 61 days go by, and the rest
is history.
They are not interested in peace. They are interested in fulfilling a
religious agenda that has no place for us or the State of Israel.
Hitler didn't want peace. There was not a part of a country you could
give him to stop him from enacting his sick and twisted agenda. He
didn't want German-speaking populations. He wanted the entire world to
speak German. He wanted the entire world to fall under his Nazi regime.
He was nuts. And it took a bunch of people from all over the world,
particularly America, to destroy the Third Reich, and about 60 million
people died because we got it wrong in the thirties--6 million Jews.
We are not going to let that happen again as long as I am around, the
Presiding Officer, or President Trump and the people of Israel. We are
not going to let that happen. We are going to stick with Israel because
sticking with them is helping us. They are fighting the people that
want to kill us as much as they want to kill all the Jews. Their fight,
in my view, is our fight.
Operation Midnight Hammer: After day 60, all the negotiations went
nowhere because the Iranians didn't want them to go anywhere. President
Trump acted, and it was brilliant, it was bold, and it will live in
history. To all those who took part in this, God bless you. We have the
finest military on Earth. We proved that yet again. But you can have
the best military, and if you don't have the right Commander in Chief,
nothing happens. We got the right Commander in Chief married up with
the strongest military in history, which will make us safer.
We are not looking to take over Iran. We are not looking to invade
Iran. We are looking to make sure that the fanatics who run Iran can't
hurt us and can't destroy our friends in Israel. And President Trump
did something about it. He sent B-2s to Iran, and everybody thought:
Well, what is that all about? Well, they missed the other B-2s that
went to Iran and put a hurting on these three enrichment sites.
To the pilots, to the air crews, to everybody involved: Well done. I
spent 30-something years in the Air Force, and I have never been more
proud. Fly, fight, win.
What is next? They shot missiles at our airbase in Qatar--the
Iranians did--today, about 16 or 19. One may have gotten through. I
think they called us. But just remember what I said. They shot missiles
at us today. They shot missiles at Israel last night.
The strikes a couple of days ago were designed to shut down the
enrichment facilities used to make this weapons-grade uranium. I think
we were substantially successful, and I have never been more proud of
President Trump and our military. And I think we set back their
military program substantially.
But here is what we didn't do: We didn't change their desire for a
nuclear weapon. We changed the capability to make one. Here is my goal:
to have people in charge of Iran who don't want a nuclear weapon to
destroy Israel, who will not be the largest state sponsor of terrorism
but live in peace with their neighbors and have a good relationship
with the United States. That is what I want. And if you don't want
that, there is something wrong with you.
How do you get that? Two ways: The religious fanatics reject their
agenda; they change their behavior. Maybe that will happen. I don't
know. Or you change the people and you replace the religious fanatics
with people in Iran who do not want to destroy the world, who do not
want to create a master religion, who want to live in peace. And I
think that is the vast majority of the Iranians.
If we get this right, stick with Israel, stand up to this bully--this
religious, fanatical regime--let Israel do what they need to do, then I
think peace is coming.
The Presiding Officer and myself went to Saudi Arabia and Israel to
talk about Saudi Arabia recognizing the Jewish State under certain
conditions. Before the attack of October 7, we were very close to
expanding the Abraham Accords to include a deal between Saudi Arabia
and Israel that, basically, would end the Arab-Israeli conflict--an
amazing moment in history.
October 7 comes along: a vicious, brutal attack on Israel by Hamas,
which is fully funded by Iran--raping women, killing children in front
of their parents, and doing things that we really don't need to be
talking about on the floor. That was designed to stop reconciliation
between Saudi Arabia and Israel because, for the Iranian fanatical
regime, the worst nightmare is for the Arab world to make peace with
Israel and move toward the light. These people want darkness for the
world.
So what do we do now? Israel has had it. I talked to the Prime
Minister yesterday before I went on television, and I asked him: What
would you like me to tell America, Bibi?
He said: Three things. We are profoundly grateful to the American
people for what you do to help the Jewish State. We couldn't be here
without you. We are profoundly grateful to President Trump for his
strong leadership.
He also wanted me to urge the people of Iran to seize the moment to
end the nightmare you have been living.
And the third thing he wanted me to tell the American people is:
Israel is not going to live this way anymore. They are not going to
raise their children in bomb shelters. They are not going to have their
life interrupted daily by ballistic missiles coming from religious
Nazis who want to kill all the Jews like Hitler. They are not going to
put up with that. Regime change is coming to Iran, one or two ways: The
regime renounces what they have been doing since 1979 and changes
course, or it is replaced.
To expect Israel to do anything else is offensive to me. You are
asking Israel to accept as normal being attacked every day and every
night by over 500 ballistic missiles? Over 24 Israeli citizens have
been killed. The missiles going into Israel are designed to kill
children. The attacks by the
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Israelis are designed to shut down the regime's nuclear capability. But
the targets are changing. They are now going after the police force
that keeps the Ayatollah in power, the intelligence services that scare
people into submission, the prisons that house dissidents.
Israel has made a fateful decision to go to the heart of this regime,
to take these religious Nazis down one way or the other--reject Nazism
and the former religion or get new people.
And I am with them. I am with them to the bitter end. I am with them
because being with them is in your own interest if you are an American.
Being with them is in your own interest if you believe in religious
tolerance. Being with Israel means you reject a regime that would take
a 16-year-old girl off a bus and beat her to death because she didn't
have a head cover. This is evil we are fighting. They are as evil as
the Nazis.
Now, 80 years later, we are having a debate about what the Jewish
people should do to a group that wants to kill them all? Really? We are
debating among ourselves what is too much against a regime trying to
build dozens of nuclear weapons to blow people off the planet they
don't like or agree with? What kind of world are we living in? To all
those who want to hold Israel back, what would you do if it were our
country? Would you hold us back? If you tried to, we would run you
over. We are not going to live this way as Americans.
So what is this all about? I am going to end where I began. It is
about a fanatical regime that took over the country by force, that
started out imprisoning Americans, has been trying to build nuclear
bombs--multiple nuclear bombs--has been the largest state sponsor of
terrorism since 1984, has American blood on its hands, has attacked
Israel over and over and over again, has suppressed its own people. It
is about a religious agenda.
Why do they do what they do? Religious, fanatical beliefs; a master
religion for the world. And if you don't believe that, you have missed
a lot. That is what they want, and the only way they are not going to
get there is for somebody to stop them.
What did Hitler want? To take over the entire world and create a
master race--anybody that didn't fit his definition of the right kind
of person was in prison or killed.
The Ayatollah and his henchmen have that same view, but it is
religiously driven.
So what happens in the next few days is going to determine the course
of history for the State of Israel and the region for decades to come.
To our friends in Israel: Finish the job. Do what you have to do to
bring about the regime change that will allow your children to sleep
through the night.
To the American people: Wake up. Understand what we are fighting. The
Ayatollah is not normal. These are not normal people. Stand with
Israel. Standing with Israel, you are standing by your--you are helping
your own self; you are helping your own families.
I will make a prediction. Israel is going to win, and this regime is
going to fall. This regime is going to fall of its own weight. The
people in Iran are going to have their chance, as the regime gets
weakened, to rise up and take back their own lives.
I don't know when that day is coming, but it is coming soon. I
believe that. I believe that the day of reckoning is here for the
religious Nazis running Iran; that their terrorism is coming to an end;
that it is going to be replaced by a region that moves together, where
Sunnis and Shias and Israelis and all different groups--Christians--
work together to build economies for all those rights.
We live in a time of choosing. I choose to stand up to evil.
I yield the floor.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The senior assistant executive clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. GRAHAM. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
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