Newly released footage shows the late Senator Lindsey Graham crediting himself with persuading US President Donald Trump to join Israel in war against Iran. Graham died on July 11 at age 71.

British filmmaker Alex Holder, who shadowed the Republican senator for three years, accumulated over 400 hours of footage. Excerpts were shared with The Wall Street Journal.

In one clip, Graham watches Trump's press conference after US-Israeli strikes on Iran and exclaims: "How long have we been pushing this? Look what we've done here. I almost cried." He says Trump told him "he loves blowing stuff up."

Graham claimed he overcame internal opposition to convince Trump, and compared the Trump-Netanyahu alliance to Roosevelt and Churchill during WWII.

Another clip captures a phone call where Graham offers to lobby Trump to bomb Hezbollah targets in Lebanon. Netanyahu demurs, saying they should focus on Iran first.

The WSJ reports that in June, Graham was frustrated with Trump's preliminary ceasefire with Iran, saying "He's letting this thing slip away" and vowing to confront the president.

Source: www.aljazeera.com