‘Iran Can Never Have Nuclear Weapons,’ US Security Adviser Assures Israel

Bolton met with Netanyahu on Sunday ahead of a US-Israel-Russia security meeting on Tuesday in Jerusalem.

By United With Israel Staff

“Iran can never have nuclear weapons,” said U.S. national security adviser John Bolton on Sunday in Jerusalem as he met with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Bolton made the remarks ahead of Tuesday’s three-way meeting between the U.S., Israel and Russia, reiterating President Donald Trump’s earlier announcement regarding new sanctions on Iran, which Washington plans to announce on Monday.

“Stay tuned,” said the U.S.national security adviser.

“No one has granted [Iran] a hunting license in the Middle East,” he told reporters as he stood next to Netanyahu at the Prime Minister’s Office.

Netanyahu said that those who blame America’s withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal and the re-imposition of sanctions for Iran’s stepped-up aggression are living “on another planet.”

The Israeli prime minister, like Bolton, has repeatedly vowed that Iran would never be allowed to attain a nuclear weapon. The Islamic Republic has vowed to destroy Israel.

Netanyahu fought against the Obama administration’s effort, along with other world powers, toward reaching the 2015 nuclear pact with Iran and hailed President Trump’s decision to withdraw from the deal last year.

In addition to the nuclear threat, Israel grapples with Iranian terror through its proxies Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon and Syria. There have also been direct confrontations with Iran in Syria, and Netanyahu has vowed to fight Tehran’s military entrenchment in Syria.

Last week, Iran downed an American drone in the Strait of Hormuz area. On Friday, Trump confirmed that he had decided against a retaliatory strike on the Islamic Republic which he had earlier approved in the aftermath of the downing of the unmanned aircraft.

In Jerusalem, Bolton reiterated Trump’s contention that the decision not to attack was only for the time-being, and that a future strike had not been ruled out.

Though this week’s trilateral security meeting was planned long before the most recent Iranian aggresion, Bolton said that the latest developments made the gathering “even more timely.”