Former UN Ambassador John Bolton: Iran Already Violating Nuclear Deal
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- After this week's high profile meetings at the United Nations, former US Ambassador of the UN, John Bolton continued his criticism of the Obama Administration's handing of the Iranian nuclear deal and Russia's engagement with Iran and Syria.
Bolton, in an interview with Dom Giordano on Talk Radio 1210 WPHT, asserted his belief that Iran cannot be counted on to uphold their end of the bargain.
"This is a regime that's been committed to getting nuclear weapons for close to 35 years and they've lied and cheated and concealed their work before. They're going to continue to do it. There's no doubt in my mind that Iran is already violating this deal. I think one of the jobs we have here over the next several years is gathering the evidence of those violations."
He contended that we need to do more to counter Russia's growing role in the Middle East, when it comes to both Iran and battling ISIS.
"We could be effective against ISIS, but every day that goes by just makes it that much harder as ISIS consolidates its control. I think the fact is what's going on with the Russians is that Vladimir Putin has made a decision that he's going to challenge the United States for dominance in the Middle East. This is an area we tried to keep the Russians out of for 70 years. We know it's vital to American interests and their presence, now manifested by an airbase just a short distance from Israel's northern border is very, very troubling."
Bolton also said he was impressed with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech before the UN, during which he paused for almost a minute, staring out at the audience for, what he called, their silence in confronting the Iranians.
"Having sat through I don't know how many speeches like that in the General Assembly Hall, I've never seen anything like that. I think he made his point very effectively. It was a very strong speech reminding everybody that, although people are trying to turn the page in Washington and elsewhere, this Iran nuclear threat has not been capped by this deal. It continues to grow and we're going to deal with the problem, sooner or later. It's just a question of when."