President Donald Trump continued to press Israel and Iran to make a deal to end their military escalation – even as some of his Republican allies in the Senate push for regime change.
The president posted on Truth Social that he could broker a peace similar to the de-escalation that happened between India and Pakistan.
“Also, during my first term, Serbia and Kosovo were going at it hot and heavy, as they have for many decades, and this long time conflict was ready to break out into WAR,” he said. “I stopped it (Biden has hurt the longer term prospects with some very stupid decisions, but I will fix it, again!)”
The president also said he ended a conflict between Egypt and Ethiopia.
“There is peace, at least for now, because of my intervention, and it will stay that way!” he said. “Likewise, we will have PEACE, soon, between Israel and Iran! Many calls and meetings now taking place. I do a lot, and never get credit for anything, but that’s OK, the PEOPLE understand. MAKE THE MIDDLE EAST GREAT AGAIN!”
Trump’s words come after Israel conducted strikes on Iran on Thursday, which led to Iran responding in kind. Israel said that it initially killed some of Iran’s top nuclear scientists and military commanders as it hopes to prevent Iran from building a nuclear weapon.
On the Sunday shows, plenty of Senate Republicans continued to push for a regime change in Iran. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, an ally of Trump and a military hawk, called on Trump to support Israel by whatever means.
“If diplomacy is not successful, and we are left with the option of force, I would urge President Trump to go all in, to make sure that when this operation is over, there’s nothing left standing in Iran regarding their nuclear program,” he Graham told Margaret Brennan on CBS’s Face the Nation.
When asked about regime change, Graham deferred to the official policy of the United States.
“I would love for the regime to fall,” he said. “But regime change is not the policy of the United States. It is not the purpose of this attack, yet. But if there’s one attack on an American, anywhere in the Mideast by Iran, then you will get a regime change.”
In recent months, the Trump administration, led by envoy Steve Witkoff, has taken part in negotiations with Iran to prevent the country from obtaining a nuclear weapon, which has made Republican senators uneasy, fearing it will be a repeat of the 2015 Iranian nuclear agreement brokered during the Obama administration.
Witkoff was set to meet with officials to continue negotiations in Muscat in Oman on Sunday.
Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said that the strike by Israel came after Trump’s 60-day window for Iran to make a deal has elapsed. “As President Trump said, that he’d given Iran 60 days to make a deal,” he said. Though Brennan said that he had scheduled talks three days after the deadline.
“He gave them 60 days, on 61 the strikes began,” he said.
Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, who sits on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, went on Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo on Fox and said that regime change in Iran was in the best interest of the United States.
“I think it is very much in the interest of America to see regime change,” he said. I don’t think there’s any redeeming the Ayatollah, he is filled with hatred.”
Cruz said that he would very much prefer a secular regime in Iran similar one before Iran’s 1979 revolution that overthrew the Shah and put in place the Ayatollah and the Islamic Republic.
But Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, a non-interventionist, told Meet the Press that he did not like the idea of regime change in Iran and criticized Graham saying “Game on” in response to the strikes.
“You imagine what happens in Iran now?” he said. “Do they coalesce around their government, even though their government is unpopular? Does nationalism thrive?”
Paul said that he liked that Trump did not share the same hawkish instincts as his colleagues and hoped he would follow through.
“I think his instincts are to not be involved in this war, but there will be a lot of pressure from Lindsey Graham and others to get involved in this war, and I hope that his instincts will prevail,” he said.
