Bolton: Leaked Details of Potential Deal with Iran Are ‘Very, Very Disturbing’
BOLTON: “Based on these reports and other leaks from the administration over the course of negotiations I think paint a picture that’s very, very disturbing from the U.S. point of view. It’s a mistake from the get-go to say that this deal to the extent we understand it effectively limit Iran’s nuclear weapons program at all. The concessions that Iran is said to be making are superficial, easily reversible. The deal doesn’t cover critical aspects including the actual weaponization work of highly enriched uranium and does not deal at all with the ballistic missile program, which is the intended delivered nuclear system for the nuclear weapons. And I think even more fundamentally, all of this assumes we actually know everything about Iran's nuclear work and if the last 25 years have taught us anything, we've got be a little bit humble about our intelligence capabilities. I think it is a bad deal, it rests on bad premises and we’ll have a bad outcome.”
MACCALLUM: “So what do you think the motivator is? I mean, it appears the administration really wants to have this on the resume that they reached a deal with Iran. And given everything else that's going on in the Middle East right now, does it feel to you as if we are kind of cozying up to Iran or feeling they are sort of the more seen of the partners that could potentially be out there? Is that the decision that’s been made here?”
BOLTON: “I think the president’s view of America’s place in the world is that we cause as much trouble as we prevent. I think he sees the Iranian nuclear weapons program in part a response to the United States and Israel. So in his view, which is the view of appeasers throughout history, if we show to Iran that there is no threat from us certainly the president is doing evening he can to display that approach, that Iran will calm down and give up its nuclear weapons program. I think that’s the road to disaster. But I think that’s the president’s world view.”
