Republican Senator Lindsey Graham says President Donald Trump will target Cuba next after joint U.S. and Israeli airstrikes on Iran have sparked a massive regional conflict in the Middle East.
The South Carolina senator praised Trump for “finishing the job” of former President Ronald Reagan, pointing to the now-removed Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro as evidence of Trump’s successful foreign policy.
“I am a big admirer of Ronald Reagan, but I’m here to tell you that Donald Trump is the gold standard for Republicans, maybe any president, when it comes to foreign policy,” Graham told Fox News Sunday night.
“Maduro? Everybody talked about him; well, Donald Trump’s got him in jail!” Graham said. “Cuba’s next. They’re gonna fall. This communist dictatorship in Cuba? Their days are numbered.”
Graham continued: “The Iranian regime. The mothership of international terrorism is about to collapse. The captain of the ship, the Ayatollah, is stone cold dead.”
His comments come days after the U.S. and Israel jointly began airstrikes on Iran, sparking a wider war within the region as Iranian forces retaliated against Israel and U.S. targets. The intense attacks, which resulted in the assassination of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, do not appear to be ending any time soon.
Meanwhile, tensions between the U.S. and Cuba have escalated over the past two months, especially following the capture of Maduro, causing an abrupt end to Venezuela’s vital fuel shipments to the communist-run island.
Last month, the Cuban government warned its allies that it could not guarantee it would be able to refuel their planes, prompting flights from Canada and Russia to halt flights to the island.
Without flights to and from the island, Cuba loses tourism, which is one of its few sources of foreign currency.
One day before the U.S. and Israel jointly began airstrikes on Iran, Trump said the U.S. was in talks with Havana, and raised the possibility of a “friendly takeover of Cuba.”
Speaking to reporters outside the White House Friday, Trump said that Secretary of State Marco Rubio was in discussions with Cuban leaders “at a very high level.”
“The Cuban government is talking with us,” Trump said. “They have no money. They have no anything right now. But they’re talking to us, and maybe we’ll have a friendly takeover of Cuba.”
Trump added: “We could very well end up having a friendly takeover of Cuba.”
The president did not provide any other details about what he meant by a “friendly takeover.”
Earlier last week, thde Cuban government reported that a Florida-registered speedboat carrying 10 armed Cubans from the U.S. had opened fire on soldiers off the island’s north coast. Four of the armed Cubans were killed and six were injured, officials said.
The government is investigating the incident, which Rubio said was not a U.S. operation and that no government personnel were involved.
Last month, Trump also told reporters at Mar-a-Lago that Cuba was a “failing nation,” but that “we’re talking to the people from Cuba, the highest people in Cuba, to see what happens.”
Trump added: “I think we’re going to make a deal with Cuba.”
Cuba’s President, Miguel Díaz-Canel, responded – in front of a photograph of Fidel Castro – by saying that Cuba was “willing to engage in dialogue with the United States, a dialogue on any topic, but without pressure or preconditions.”
It was not immediately clear Monday if the U.S. and Cuba were in talks. However, unconfirmed reports from last month suggested that talks may be in progress in Mexico.
With reporting by the Associated Press.
