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Exclusive: Former White House National Security Advisor Amb. He told Fox News that the Biden administration “is showing weakness” in Tehran. Negotiations on the Iran nuclear deal should be “finished”.
The Justice Department on Wednesday indicted Iranian operative Shahram Pursafi, a member of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, for plotting to assassinate Bolton, who served as President Trump’s national security adviser until 2019. announced that it did
U.S. officials said the plan was planned in retaliation for the January 2020 strike that killed Qasem Soleimani, a respected Iranian leader and head of Iran’s Quds Force. said it was likely.
In an interview with Fox News Digital on Thursday, Bolton said he had been “aware” of the conspiracy against him “for some time.”
Iranian operative charged with conspiracy to assassinate John Bolton
Bolton said he was contacted by the FBI in the spring of 2020 saying he had a “warning duty.”
“As time went on, I was given several assignments to warn, and each one got a little bit more serious,” Bolton said, noting that he attended a meeting at the FBI in the fall of 2021. explained the latest information that they were plotting against him.
Bolton told Fox News that he sought protection for the U.S. Secret Service during the Trump administration, but that was lifted when he resigned.
The FBI granted a request for USSS protection in December 2021, and Bolton told Fox News protection was underway.
But Bolton said he was less concerned about individual plots against him, but more concerned about the threat from Iran to all Americans.
“It’s not just me,” Bolton said. “The regime in Tehran targets many Americans.”
“The objective here is to kill Americans and former government officials on the mainland,” Bolton explained. “I believe this is a broader threat to American citizens on the mainland and is essentially unprecedented.”
He added, “It can be called an act of war and it will tell you everything you need to know about Tehran’s government.”
When the Justice Department indicted Pourusafi this week, it said it had a “solemn duty to protect its citizens from hostile governments seeking to harm or kill them.”
Matthew G. Olsen, Assistant Attorney General for the Department of National Security, said, “This is not the first time that Iran has uncovered an Iranian conspiracy aimed at retaliation against individuals in the United States, and we have exposed all of these efforts and We will continue to work tirelessly to disrupt.” .”
Pursafi approached a U.S. resident he met online and asked for a photo of the former national security adviser, claiming it would be used in a book he was writing, according to the Justice Department. The resident said he connected Poursafi with someone who would take his picture for $5,000 to $10,000.
Poursafi then contacted another person via an encrypted messaging application and offered $250,000 to hire someone to “get rid” of Bolton. Poursafi also hinted at another “job” in the future, saying he would be paid $1 million.
Pursafi then showed the person how to perform the surgery, pointing out that using small arms would require approaching a former Trump administration adviser.
“Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, through its defendants, attempted to conspire a brazen conspiracy to assassinate a former U.S. official on the U.S. mainland in retaliation for U.S. actions,” said Matthew M. Graves, District of Columbia. federal prosecutors said this week.
Meanwhile, Bolton continued to accuse the Biden administration of negotiating with Tehran to revive the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), known as the Iran nuclear deal.
“More important than the threat to individuals is the devastating strategic policy the administration is seeking to revive the 2015 nuclear deal,” Bolton said. “The government will never keep its promises. It will do whatever it thinks is necessary to obtain nuclear weapons.”
“People are deluding themselves if they think they can get back to the nuclear deal if they give Iran enough concessions.”
Will the US yield to EU appeasement in a desperate effort to save the Iranian nuclear deal?
The Trump administration withdrew from the deal in 2018.
Bolton told Fox News that he believes the threat Iran poses to the United States has “increased for some time” but is “at the highest level now”.
Iranian regime Over the past few weeks, we’ve been bragging about what we can develop nuclear weaponsand it even threatened to annihilate New York with an atomic bomb, turning the metropolis into “the ruins of hell.”
“The Biden administration is sending a bearish signal,” Bolton said, noting that officials said they viewed talks about the nuclear deal as “separate from terrorism.”
“Well, that might be fine for the White House, but Tehran doesn’t have such a block,” he continued. “And Iran sees a patchwork of incoherent policies that we pursue, which is also a sign of weakness.”
President Biden’s negotiators in Vienna, Austria, are not trying to limit the production of Iran’s long-range missile program.
The Iran nuclear deal does not include a provision to stop Tehran from supporting terrorism around the world.
Iran declares it could use nuclear missiles to ‘turn New York into hell’
Bolton told Fox News that he would “end negotiations” given the threat to him and the American public.
“I do not believe that a written agreement would prevent Iran from possessing nuclear weapons. I do not believe that the passage of time has improved it. I think it has changed,” Bolton said.
Mr Bolton said Iran was using the negotiations “as camouflage and as a weapon”.
Bolton also told Fox News that US opponents took the Biden administration’s withdrawal from Afghanistan last year “as a signal to withdraw.”
“I thought it would be a terrible mistake to withdraw. I mean, the way it was done was embarrassing and dangerous, but the decision was a mistake,” Bolton said. abandoned an important strategic position.”
“They simply gave up and increased the terrorist threat emanating from Afghanistan,” Bolton told Fox News. “It has boosted the strategic situation of Russia and China in Central Asia, which reflects the Taliban’s continued disregard for promises.”
“Terrorists, whether they are terrorist states or terrorist groups, must learn not to keep their promises,” Bolton said. “The Taliban didn’t do it. The Iranians don’t do it.”
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Bolton told Fox News that Beijing and Moscow “viewed the withdrawal as a sign of U.S. withdrawal and isolationism and acted accordingly.”
“It’s very detrimental to our interests,” Bolton said.