Israeli ambassador on Sen. Lindsey Graham’s passing, U.S.-Iran relations and more

WASHINGTON (CBS, KYMA) - Dr. Michael Leiter, Israeli Ambassador to the U.S., spoke with Margaret Brennan on Face the Nation Sunday to discuss the passing of Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.).

A statement provided by his office says Sen. Graham died Saturday night "from a brief and sudden illness."

According to Brennan, Graham was a fierce advocate for Israel, and was pushing to normalize relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia, with the senator making the pitch when he appeared on Face the Nation three weeks ago.

This prompted her to ask Ambassador Leiter if he thinks there's a way to carry on his legacy through continuing that kind of diplomatic work, to which he said:

"Absolutely, Lindsey was a dear friend. My first day in Washington, January 27 2025, the first phone call I got once I landed on my seat in the embassy was from Lindsey Graham. He said, "can we have dinner tonight?" And we've been talking about normalization in the Middle East for the past year and a half. And he was not only a fierce advocate of defeating this Iranian regime, he was also a fierce advocate of what would happen afterwards. And he saw, he had a vision for peace in the Middle East. And absolutely, we have to work toward that end, but it really is going to happen if his first part of that vision is fulfilled, and that's that Iran is no longer a regional hegemon menacing its neighbors."

During the interview, Brennan and Leiter talked about the attempt to revive a truce between the U.S. and Iran collapsing, with Brennan asking if Israel intends to stay on the sidelines, and how does the U.S. see the conflict at this point, and the ambassador said:

"President Trump has been consistent, I think, throughout this confrontation. If talks will work, if diplomacy can work, then he's in favor of the diplomatic route. But when it doesn't work, you have to go back to military and kinetic activity. When the United States signed the MOU with Iran just a few weeks ago, there was one item, just one thing, that the Iranians had to fulfill, and that was keeping the straits open. And that they've completely ignored. So they forced the U.S. to go back into kinetic activity. We're a partner, we're an ally. If the United States calls on us to rejoin kinetic activity against Iran, we're going to be there for the United States."

Later in the interview, Brennan and Leiter talked about two high-profiled incidents in the Middle East, with one of them being the detainment of Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), who said the vehicle he was in was stopped by Israeli settlers, and "then when the IDF showed up, they were on the side of the settlers, not him."

Rep. Khanna also said, "[It's] not a good idea to detain longshot presidential candidates."

In addition, a CNN crew was attacked in the West Bank by four settlers, leading Brennan to ask the ambassador if the Israeli government should apologize to both Khanna and the CNN journalists, and Leiter said:

"Any violence is to be condemned. No excuses, no explanations. Okay. So if CNN crew was attacked, that needs to be condemned, and I'm doing so right now. And we need to do a better job...If it was actually took place as they've reported it, absolutely condemning it. We need to rein in violence on all sides. Now, in terms of Ro Khanna, we reached out to him when we heard he was going to Israel, the Israeli embassy here in Washington. As all congressmen do, they coordinate their trip with the Israeli government. We suggested he visit with survivors of the October 7 massacre. That he visit the borders, so he understands the, the issues that we have in our borders and so on. He ignored that and he decided to coordinate his trip not with Israel, but with Palestinian activists and with J Street, which is a anti-government, anti-Israeli government advocacy group here in Washington."

To watch more of Brennan's interview with Khanna, click here.