Bolton: Russia should have interest in containing nuclear Iran

“We see continued evidence, growing evidence, of Iran’s violations of not just the nuclear deal but the nonproliferation treaty itself,” Bolton said.

By World Israel News Staff

“We think Russia should have an interest, a concern essentially equivalent to ours, against the threat of nuclear proliferation,” U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton said, following discussions with his Israeli and Russian counterparts at a trilateral meeting held in Jerusalem on Tuesday.

“And in the case of Iran, we see continued evidence, growing evidence, of Iran’s violations of not just the nuclear deal but the nonproliferation treaty itself. The IAEA has already found Iran to be in violation of the nuclear deal because of its exceeding the limit on sophisticated centrifuges, the device used to enrich uranium,” Bolton said.

Also discussed was the issue of Syria. “The U.S. would very much like to get rid of foreign forces from Syria,” Bolton said. “The real issue is the Iranian forces. They are a problem in Iraq. They are a problem in Syria. They are a problem in Lebanon. They are a problem in Yemen. They are a problem in Afghanistan.”

The trilateral meeting was held between Bolton, Russia’s National Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev  and Israel National Security Adviser Meir Ben-Shabbat.

Bolton described the discussions as productive and helpful in cutting “through some of the fog that occasionally surrounds these issues.”