The ouster of John Bolton was the most important news over last few days in the US and perhaps in international arena; a hard-line politician who repeatedly was beating the drum of war and demanded the collapse of US opposing governments, was fired by Trump on Monday night.
A hard-line American right-wing politician, John Bolton witnessed an end in his career in Trump presidency. The post of national security adviser was the most important and perhaps most influential post of Bolton in his career; a position he took after April 5, 2018 HM McMaster lost. Of course, when Donald Trump took office, John Bolton was nominated as one of the potential candidates for the State Department, but that position didn’t reach Bolton and he became a national security adviser after a year.
Bolton’s father was a firefighter and his mother was a housewife. After studying law at Yale University, he entered politics. From his student years, he had a strong right-wing tendency, advocating for the Vietnam War and opposing the law on citizenship and the elimination of discrimination against blacks.
Bolton served as US ambassador to the United Nations from August 2005 to December 2006. George W. Bush had appointed him without a vote of confidence in Congress during its recess. However, Bolton resigned in December, because he certainly could not get a vote of confidence in the Democratic-controlled US Senate. During his time at the United Nations, he repeatedly attacked all of its structures and staff, including the UN Secretary-General.
Bolton is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and an expert on Fox News. He has also worked with many conservative think tanks such as the National Arms Association, a project for the New American Century, the Jewish National Security Foundation.
Bolton is a full-fledged warmonger. He advocates regime change in North Korea, was a supporter of the Iraq war and continues to defend his decision. He advocates regime change in Syria and Libya. Prior to the Trump administration, he had called for an end to the JCPOA and repeatedly called for bombing of Iran. Bolton is a supporter of the terrorist Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO). In general, he is in favor of using military force to advance the US goals, and says any country that opposes the US should be suppressed only by military attack.
Bolton has a well-known article on Iran that was published in the New York Times in 2015, and wrote his comments on Iran in detail with title of”To Stop Iran’s Bomb, Bomb Iran”. Bolton’s article said, in his opinion, an Iranian nuclear bomb would trigger an arms race in the Middle East, and countries such as Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Egypt would be forced to seek these kinds of weapons.
Bolton and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo are widely rumored to have been deeply hostile to each other, according to CNN in Bolton’s final days these old tensions have become a full-fledged hostility. CNN wrote that Bolton is eyeing the State Department post.
Bolton’s hot summer
Bolton welcomed Donald Trump’s hostile rhetoric against Iran at a meeting of the MKO terrorist group in Paris in July 2017, saying that the outcome of the current Trump administration’s decision must be the review of its policies toward Iran that it cannot celebrate its 40th anniversary. He added that Iran will have a hot summer after the US sanctions are returned.
During Bolton’s tenure as Trump’s national security adviser, he made great efforts to fuel tensions between Iran and the United States. In his latest response in the eve of the UN General Assembly in an attempt to create a negative atmosphere against Iran, he accused Iran of lying and wrote in a Twitter message that now that two weeks are left to the UN General Assembly, be sure Iran is intensely busy with deceiving. Iran denied that Adrian Darya was going to Syria, then confirmed today that its oil had been discharged.
In June this year, Bolton attributed the Fujairah blasts to the Islamic Republic, which damaged four tankers, claiming that the blasts were caused by landmines that were almost certainly Iranian.
In July this year, after Iran shot down an American drone over the waters of the Oman Sea, US President Donald Trump said that in response to the drone downing, he initially ordered the attack on three targets in Iran, but canceled it ten minutes before the attacks because of the possibility of 150 deaths. In response, Bolton warned Iran not to confuse the US prudence with its weakness.
At the same time, the Wall Street Journal reported on Trump’s widespread disagreement with his national security team over their plans to attack Iran, with John Bolton leading the officials in charge of designing war plans. The Wall Street Journal wrote that Trump said in a private conversation that these guys want to get us into a war, and it’s disgusting. We don’t need more wars.
In February 2018, Connecticut Democrat Sen. Chris Murphy, in reaction to John Bolton’s statement that Iran was seeking a nuclear weapon, said Bolton was preparing the ground for war with Iran. Murphy wrote on Twitter that Bolton says Iran is seeking nuclear weapons. This is clearly not true. Intelligence agencies (US) have said the opposite and he knows. He sets the stage for war and we all need to be vigilant.
In a January 2018, Wall Street Journal reported that senior Pentagon officials expressed deep concern that Trump’s national security adviser, John Bolton, is creating a tension with Iran. That is when Trump ordered US troops out of the Middle East.
Zarif and Bolton at United Nations
Our Foreign Minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, who worked with John Bolton at the United Nations in 1995 and 1996, is well aware of his views and sentiments. The FM nominated Bolton as a member of the Team B in May and warned Donald Trump that the group is planning to drag the US into war with Iran.
Zarif repeatedly referred to the team’s planning and goals in his interviews and tweets. As far as Trump responded to his Twitter account and wrote that there are various opinions [on Iran] and I will make the final decision. All aspects, views and policies will be considered. I am confident that Iran will soon seek negotiations.
Some analysts now believe that after firing Bolton, the US policies on Iran will be balanced, as the most important Trump-Bolton dispute was over Iran. Bolton’s split came at a time when Trump was eager to meet with leaders of countries that, in Bolton’s view, were sworn enemies of America.
Rand Paul, a Republican senator who recently met with Zarif, called John Bolton Secretary of War and expressed his happiness with Bolton’s ouster and told Fox News that he thinks Bolton’s departure from the White House a big part of the shadow of war on the world has gone away … His naive view was that”we must bring governments that we think are democratic by changing regimes everywhere”.
Bloomberg wrote that Trump initially supported maximum pressure on Iran, but he recently came up with softer diplomacy and reduced his government’s initial 12 terms of sanctions against Iran to three at the Group of Seven meeting in France, and in France, he spoke openly and repeatedly about the negotiations.
Bolton’s departure may pave the way for Trump’s dream of a meeting between US and Iranian leaders. But with the ousting of the White House National Security Adviser, the chances of a catastrophic new Middle East war are dramatically reduced.
