Lindsey Graham, the US Republican senator, has died after a sudden illness. He was 71.
His office confirmed his death in a statement on Sunday.
Emergency personnel responded to a call for “cardiac arrest” at Mr Graham’s home in Capitol Hill on Saturday night, NBC News reported. He was due on television on Sunday morning and appeared well during public appearances in Turkey and Ukraine last week.
His family “appreciates prayers at this time and asks for privacy during this incredibly difficult period,” his office said.
The South Carolina politician was a hardline critic of Iran and a frequent visitor to the Middle East. He was further known for his staunch support for Israel, and for Ukraine in the war with Russia.
Shortly after his death was announced, US President Donald Trump called Mr Graham “one of the greatest people and senators I have ever known” and a hard-working patriot.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he was “deeply saddened”, calling Mr Graham “a true defender of freedom and the values that make our world safer”.
Mr Zelenskyy noted that Mr Graham had visited his country 10 times since Russia's invasion in 2022.
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US Republican Senator Lindsey Graham has died at the age of 71 after a brief and sudden illness. Reuters -
UAE President Sheikh Mohamed meets Mr Graham in Abu Dhabi, in February 2026. Wam -
Mr Graham meets Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv, amid Russia's war on Ukraine, in May 2025. Reuters -
With Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US ambassador to Israel David Friedman, in the border region between Israel and Syria, in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, in 2019. Reuters -
Mr Graham addresses a news conference in Washington, in 2013, after the reported arrest of Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, the son-in-law of Osama Bin Laden, who was taken into custody in the Middle East and was allegedly being held in New York. AFP -
Nouri Al Maliki, Iraq's prime minister at the time, meets, from left, US ambassador to Baghdad Zalmay Khalizad, and US senators John Thune, Lindsey Graham, Susan Collins, Joseph Lieberman and John McCain, in Baghdad, 2006. AFP -
The late US senator John McCain and Mr Graham during a hearing on Capitol Hill, in 2006. AFP -
Mr Graham with Donald Trump, now US President, and, from left, actor Leslie Odom Jr, Tuskegee airmen Dr Roscoe Brown, Wilfred Difore, Floyd Carter and Dabney Ian Montgomery, and actor Michael B Jordan, during the NFL And Red Tails' Salute To The Tuskegee Airmen On Veterans' Day Weekend, in New Jersey, 2011. AFP -
Mr Graham during a hearing on gun control in Washington, in 2013, months after the mass shooting at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. AFP -
Alongside George W Bush, US president at the time, in 2007. AFP -
Mr Graham, right, with senator Joseph Biden, who would go on to become US president, and Lee Ewing editor of Aerospace Daily, in 2004. AFP -
Mr Graham, at the time a US representative, talks to reporters after a meeting of the the 'House Managers', members of the House Judiciary Committe who would serve as prosecutors in the impeachment trial against US president Bill Clinton to be held in the US Senate in early January 1999. AFP
Mr Graham was at the Nato summit in Ankara last week, where a combative Mr Trump sought to ensure that members significantly increased their own spending on defence to 5 per cent of GDP.
He posed for a picture alongside Syrian President Ahmad Al Shara and US ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack.
From there, he flew to Kyiv, where he was seen with Mr Zelenskyy on Friday, July 10. On Saturday, he visited a drone factory in Kyiv to witness Ukraine's booming defence sector.
Israeli politicians were among the first to react to Mr Graham's death on Sunday.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: “Israel has lost one of its greatest friends. America has lost a great patriot. I have lost a beloved friend.”
President Isaac Herzog said he was “shocked and heart-broken to learn of the sudden passing of the great American patriot, a great friend of Israel”.
Former prime minister Yair Lapid said the senator had “unwavering moral clarity, a deep devotion to the people of Israel and a clear vision for a secure and peaceful Middle East”.
Conspiracy theories abound
In Iran, his death was lauded by state television. A news anchor on the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps' propaganda channel announced that “Lindsey Graham, the anti-Iranian senator, has gone to hell”.
One Iranian social media user wrote that “the people of Iran have finally had their reckoning with Lindsey Graham”.
The sudden nature of Mr Graham's death, and the rejoicing by Tehran's state media, sparked conspiracy theories as the US woke up to the news on Sunday morning.
Far-right commentator Laura Loomer wrote: “Did Russia or Iran just poison a US Senator? It needs to be investigated.” She pointed out that the IRGC had called last week for Mr Graham to be assassinated.
Mr Graham visited the UAE and Saudi Arabia in February, 10 days before the US and Israeli strikes on Iran sparked the current conflict.
In Riyadh, he appeared to warn of a coming war, saying Iran's then supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei – who was killed in the first wave of strikes on February 28 – may be “out of the picture” soon.
The veteran Republican served in the Senate since January 2003. Before that he was a House member from 1995 to 2003.
Mr Graham went from being one of Mr Trump's staunchest critics – calling him “xenophobic” and a “bigot” in 2016 – to a close ally. The pair played golf together several times at Mr Trump's courses, and Mr Graham often appeared to have an inside track into Mr Trump's thinking.
