US hawk insults Iranian leadership

Senator Lindsey Graham has taunted Ayatollah Ali Khamenei with a movie quip as tensions soar over nuclear talks and a military buildup

US Senator Lindsey Graham has publicly mocked Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, dismissing his military threats as Washington and Tehran remain locked in high-stakes nuclear negotiations.

In a post on X on Tuesday, Khamenei warned about US warships being sent toward Iran, writing that although they are “a dangerous piece of military hardware,” what is more dangerous is “the weapon that can send that warship to the bottom of the sea.”

“Bold talk for a one-eyed fat man,” the hawkish Republican senator responded on Wednesday, apparently referencing a line from the 1969 western ‘True Grit.’ “See you at the movies. Oh I forgot, you don’t have movies,” the senator concluded.

Graham has been escalating his rhetoric against Iran in recent days, likening Khamenei to Hitler at the Munich Security Conference last week, and calling for regime change in Iran and strikes on its infrastructure.

Meanwhile, US media reports suggest the Pentagon has informed US President Donald Trump it is prepared to strike Iran as soon as this weekend, and has briefed him on attack options, including a potentially weeks-long air campaign to “kill scores of Iranian political and military leaders,” with the end goal of toppling the government. Trump has reportedly not made a final decision yet.

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The US has amassed a formidable military presence in the Middle East, with the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group already in the region and the USS Gerald R. Ford and additional fighter jets en route. 

The buildup comes as the US and Iran have held two rounds of talks in Geneva, with Washington pressuring Tehran into accepting a new nuclear deal that would not allow for any nuclear enrichment. Both sides have described the latest round as constructive but inconclusive. 

The White House has warned that while diplomacy remains the “first option,” Tehran would be “very wise to make a deal.”

Moscow, meanwhile, has urged restraint. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called on all parties to prioritize political and diplomatic engagement amid “unprecedented” tensions.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has also defended Iran’s right to peaceful uranium enrichment under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, rejecting US demands for zero enrichment.