John Bolton: 'Very Dangerous' Iran Deal 'Not Going to Happen'

John Bolton: 'Very Dangerous' Iran Deal 'Not Going to happen'. HT: Newsmax.

Despite talks this week in Geneva between Iran and six world powers, the Islamic Republic's abandonment of its nuclear weapons program is "not going to happen," former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton tells Newsmax.

He also asserts that the Obama administration's belief that a nuclear Iran can be contained the way the United States contained the Soviet Union during the Cold War is "a bad misreading of history" — and "very dangerous."

"I don't think there are any good options," Bolton says. "If 10 years ago we had started on a very stringent program of economic sanctions that were universally applied and enforced militarily, then it might be possible that the sanctions could have driven Iran to give up the nuclear weapons program.

"But that's not going to happen now. The program is too close to its objective of deliverable nuclear weapons. Iran wants [relief] from the sanctions — that's perfectly understandable — but not at the price of giving up their nuclear weapons program. That's why the objectives of the United States and Iran are completely irreconcilable.

"Why is Obama so eager to negotiate? Because ultimately, although they may say they don't want Iran to have nuclear weapons, the Obama administration believes that you can contain and deter nuclear Iran as we contained the Soviet Union during the Cold War. That's a bad misreading of history, a misreading of the regime in Iran.

"But what it reflects is that Obama fears an Israeli military strike against Iran's program more than it fears an Iranian nuclear weapon. That's looking at the world through the wrong end of the telescope, but that's how the Obama team sees it.

"So they want a deal, they want a negotiating process in place because it will help them pressure Israel against resorting to the military option."

People generally underestimate the impact we'll see in the world once Iran does have nuclear weapons, Bolton asserts.

"Number one, almost certainly as Secretary of State Clinton said before she left office, if Iran gets nuclear weapons, Saudi Arabia will get nuclear weapons, Egypt will, Turkey will, perhaps others. So then in a relatively short period of time you're going to have half a dozen new nuclear weapon states in the already volatile Middle East.

"And number two, Iran doesn't have to use the nuclear weapon to be a threat to Israel, to our Arab friends in the region, and to the United States.

Bolton maintains that Iran could develop a nuclear energy program but not pursue a nuclear weapons program "only if there were a revolution in Iran and it got rid of the ayatollahs.

"This regime has lied about its nuclear program for over 20 years. It has tried to deceive the international community. The evidence is overwhelming, and essentially undisputed outside of Iran, that the only purpose of this program from its inception has been a weapons objective.

"The notion that you could trust this regime with any aspect of a nuclear program, which President Obama seems fully prepared to do, is very dangerous. If you had regime change and the establishment of a new regime which proved its trustworthiness over a period of time, at that point I might be willing to look at something. But not as long as this regime is in power."Read the full story here.