Overview
- Sen. Lindsey Graham defended the U.S. diplomatic memorandum with Iran and said he prefers testing the talks even though he predicted they will likely fail in his Sunday interview on CBS.
- Graham said that if negotiations collapse President Trump would take control of the Strait of Hormuz by force and that the United States would manage passage through the waterway.
- The senator softened his earlier opposition to a proposed $300 billion reconstruction fund for Iran by saying he would accept the idea only if Gulf Arab states financed it rather than the United States or Western countries.
- Graham urged the administration to advance Jay Clayton’s nomination for director of national intelligence to help unlock Democratic votes to reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
- The comments shift debate from technical negotiation details to contingency planning, tying regional normalization, Gulf financing and domestic intelligence politics to the success or failure of the staged memorandum and raising risks for shipping, markets and Israel-Gulf ties.