In an interview with the CBS Face the Nation on Sunday March 4th, Senator Lindsey Graham, who has recently returned from a Middle East tour, told Margaret Brennan of the CBS that the most frightening thing he has learnt during his trip to the region, was the malign expansion of the Iranian regime in Syria reaching close to the Lebanese and Israeli borders.  

Sen. Lindsey Graham said: We’re about to have a war between Israel and Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. Iran is winning and we are losing. So I went to Israel and Jordan. The king of Jordan is under siege because we have no policy as the United States regarding the Russian Iranian axis, southern Lebanon is a rocket launching site against Israel. They’re developing precision guided weapons so I would focus on containing Iran rather than pushing a peace process that’s broken. If we don’t come up with a strategy against Iran we’re going to make Israel go to war here pretty soon with the Hezbollah elements in southern Lebanon.

CBS Margaret Brennan asked: You’re referring to the outgrowth of the war in Syria. The president was very clear we are there just to get rid of ISIS and get out. Does he need to reconsider that policy? How do you fix the problem you identified?

Sen. Graham replied: Well, he said he did not want to turn Syria over to Iran. We don’t have a strategy to contain Iran. They’re about to take over Damascus. He’s done a good job fighting ISIL. But Iran is now dominating the Mideast. Hezbollah elements being supplied by Iran have over 100,000 missiles pointed at Israel. The king of Jordan has suffered mildly from the Syrian civil war if we don’t push Iran out and come up with an agreement in Geneva that gives Syria back to the Syrians. This war never ends. So Mr. President it’s just not about defeating ISIL. If you leave Syria in the hands of Russia and the Iranians this war never ends. And our friends in Israel and the world are hurt.

Regarding President Trump’s red line on the use of Chemical Weapons by Assad regime, Senator Graham added: I thought it did have a clear picture of his strategy,  but I don’t any longer. Clearly he did use chemical weapons yet again. What I would like to see is a no fly zone inside of Syria where people could go back to Syria from the surrounding neighborhood, and we would train Syrian Democratic Forces to take Assad on. And tell the Russians and the Iranians if you bomb these people you do so at your own peril and try to level out the chaos in Syria go to Geneva to get a peace agreement. You’ll never get an agreement in Geneva as long as Assad’s winning on the battlefield. Our policy in Syria is a complete mess. We’re AWOL when it comes to containing Russia and Iran and Syria as a real threat to the region.

The Interview was done on the CBS Face the Nation on March 4, 2018,