The world hails the late Senator Lindsey Graham, Iran vilifies him
Praised by Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu, hailed in Europe for his support for Ukraine, the influential American senator Lindsey Graham, who died suddenly at the age of 71, sparked an opposing reaction from Tehran on Monday.
• Also read: Death of Lindsey Graham: Trump “loses a man who symbolized a Republican Party that has disappeared”
• Also read: Death of Senator Lindsey Graham, Trump ally, defender of Israel and Ukraine
A central figure in the interventionist camp in Washington, the South Carolina senator had defended the war in Iraq, urged the Biden and then Trump administrations in recent years to support kyiv’s fight against the Russian invasion, and had long advocated a military campaign against Tehran.
The current US president hailed Lindsey Graham as “one of the greatest people and senators” he has known and ordered American flags to be flown at half-mast across the country until next Saturday.
Iran called Lindsey Graham an “evil” person. His “philosophy of life was aggression and intimidation”, declared diplomatic spokesperson Esmaïl Baghaï, while several state television presenters rejoiced on the air at this death.
The senator’s office announced Sunday, at 2 a.m. Washington time, his death late Saturday evening “following a brief and sudden illness”, then citing an aortic dissection following a heart pathology as the cause.
Lindsey Graham unsuccessfully tried to run for president in 2016 and then called Donald Trump, victorious that year, a “xenophobic, religiously bigoted and stoking racial tension” individual. He was still critical of the Republican billionaire after the assault on the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
But the senator had since rallied around him to become a loyal supporter, like a Republican Party now closely controlled by Donald Trump.
The president said Sunday morning that he had spoken with him on the phone the previous evening, while the senator was returning from a trip to Ukraine. “He looked a little tired,” he told NBC, but “we were thinking maybe we’d meet today.” »
“It may have been his last phone call,” added Donald Trump.
– Colonel –
His death at least temporarily weakens the weak Republican majority in the Senate, already undermined by concerns surrounding the hospitalization of another influential senator, Mitch McConnell.
The Republicans hold a narrow majority of 53 seats to 47 and have little room for maneuver in the event of absences or defections.
It is up to the governor of South Carolina, a Republican, to appoint a replacement for a few months. Lindsey Graham ran for re-election in November, and the party must now nominate a new candidate.
First elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1994, this military lawyer turned colonel entered the Senate in 2002 and has been continually re-elected since. Opposed to abortion, he held very influential positions in the upper house, such as president of the budget committee.
His memory was praised by former presidents Joe Biden, who said he was “shocked”, and George W. Bush, recognizing him as a man “who understood (…) that American commitment abroad is to resist tyranny. »
– A “very dear friend” –
A tireless critic of Barack Obama’s foreign policy, he called him a “weak opponent of evil” in 2015 because of his negotiation of a nuclear agreement with Iran.
Long-time advocate of military intervention against the Islamic Republic, great defender of strong American support for Israel, Lindsey Graham saw the offensive of the two countries against Iran at the end of February as a great victory.
Benjamin Netanyahu toured American televisions on Sunday to pay tribute to him.
“Israel has lost one of the great champions of the alliance with the United States, and, frankly, I have lost a very dear friend,” the Israeli prime minister, who had known him for a long time, declared on NBC.
The President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen welcomed the American senator’s support “to the end” for Ukraine in the face of Russia, saying that it would leave a “big void”.
He was in Ukraine in recent days, his 10th visit since the start of the Russian invasion, according to Volodymyr Zelensky, whom he met on Friday. “He stood by our people when it was most needed,” the Ukrainian president reacted on Facebook on Sunday.
