[Video below.] Sen. Lindsey Graham said Sunday that the United States should move to seize or control Iran’s Kharg Island, arguing that doing so would deal a decisive blow to Tehran’s economy and military capability amid escalating tensions in the region.

Speaking on Fox News’s “Fox News Sunday,” Graham, who has long advocated a hardline stance on Iran, pointed to Kharg Island as a critical target, noting that it serves as “the point of departure for approximately 90 percent of Iran’s oil exports.”

Earlier this month, President Donald Trump said U.S. forces had already inflicted major damage on the island’s military assets. In a post on Truth Social, Trump wrote that American forces had destroyed “every military target in Iran’s crown jewel, Kharg Island.”

He added, “for reasons of decency, I have chosen NOT to wipe out the Oil Infrastructure on the Island. However, should Iran, or anyone else, do anything to interfere with the Free and Safe Passage of Ships through the Strait of Hormuz, I will immediately reconsider this decision.”

On Sunday, with shipping through the Strait of Hormuz effectively disrupted following Iranian attacks on oil tankers, Trump warned Tehran that it must reopen the waterway or face U.S. strikes targeting its power infrastructure.

Graham said he has advised the president that a more decisive step is needed to cripple Iran’s capabilities. He said he told Trump that to permanently weaken the regime, the United States must “take Kharg Island, where they have all of the resources they have to produce oil.”

Host Shannon Bream asked whether such a move would require American ground forces, referencing concerns raised in The Atlantic about the risks of a prolonged and difficult campaign far from supply lines.

“I’m sort of tired of all this arm chair quarterbacking,” Graham said. “This has been an amazing military operation. God bless the fallen.”

Bream pressed further on the issue of deploying troops, noting the distinction involved in committing forces on the ground.

“I trust the Marines, not that guy,” Graham said, referring to the Atlantic writer. “I trust DOD. We’ve got two marine expeditionary area units sailing to this island. We did Iwo Jima, we can do this. The Marines, my money’s always on the Marines.”

Graham said the exact approach—whether through a direct takeover or a blockade—remains to be determined, but emphasized the strategic importance of the island. “I don’t know if you take the island or you blockade the island, but I know this: The day we control that island, this regime, this terrorist regime, has been weakened and it will die on a vine.”

He added that such a move could pave the way for broader regional diplomacy. “I want to take up and complete what [Joe] Biden started. As soon as we get Iran defanged so they can never do another October 7th, I want to start up peace talks between Saudi and Israel. This year, I want a peace deal between Saudi and Israeli normalizing ending the Arab-Israeli conflict — been going on for 2,000 years this year — and you can’t do it with a lethal Iran.”